Blunkett forced to resign over shares row
Mr Blunkett, who insisted on Tuesday that he would not be forced out of office, acknowledged that his business dealings had breached ministerial guidelines and that his position as work and pensions secretary had become untenable.
“I’m guilty of a mistake and I’m paying the price of it,” he told reporters, adding he was “deeply sorry” for embarrassing Mr Blair.
Asked if he had any more interests to disclose which are not yet in the public domain, Mr Blunkett said: “No, not at all.”
Mr Blunkett told reporters he had done nothing wrong in buying shares on behalf of his three eldest sons in DNA Bioscience, when he stepped down as a director in the firm on his return to cabinet last May.
He also issued an impassioned appeal for his family and friends to be left alone after 18 months of speculation about his private life.
“Unless we understand the private and public are separate, we will destroy our democracy in Britain,” he declared.
Mr Blair’s official spokesman said Mr Blunkett had tendered his resignation, which Mr Blair had “reluctantly” accepted.
The scandal came only months after Mr Blunkett - Britain’s only blind MP - was forced to quit as home secretary in December following a messy love affair with married Spectator publisher Kimberley Quinn after it was revealed he fast-tracked a visa for her nanny. The saga likely spells the end of Mr Blunkett’s career in high office.
Cabinet Office minister John Hutton will replace Mr Blunket.
Mr Blunkett was one of Britain’s most powerful politicians, rising to the top despite a hard upbringing in the northern steel town of Sheffield. He was sent to a boarding school for the blind at age of four. Eight years later, his father, an employee at the local gas works, fell into a vat of boiling water and died, leaving the family in poverty.
Mr Blunkett was greatly admired for his determination and capacity for work - but was perceived as arrogant and distant. Many lawmakers forgave his love affair with Ms Quinn, the American publisher of the Spectator magazine.
But revelations that he took a lucrative directorship with DNA Bioscience and worked for a business consultancy and a charity earlier this year without first consulting a parliamentary advisory committee raised further questions.
Mr Blunkett resigned in December after his affair with Ms Quinn and his actions to get a visa for her nanny were revealed.
Mr Blunkett insisted he had simply misunderstood the guidelines.
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