British Home Secretary David Blunkett was tonight preparing for a High Court battle, which could come as early as Monday, over the future of Humberside’s Chief Constable David Woodward.

The Home Office should take more of the blame for the failings identified by the Bichard Inquiry into the handling of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, a senior police officer said today.

FIVE British police officers accused of making racist remarks in an undercover television documentary resigned yesterday.