Blunkett ‘abused position to help former lover’

British Home Secretary David Blunkett has been accused of “fast-tracking” a visa for his former lover’s Filipina nanny in order to allow her to stay in Britain indefinitely, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The home secretary allegedly used his position to facilitate the granting of permanent residency for Leoncia “Luz” Casalme, a 36-year-old nanny working for Kimberly Quinn, the married woman with whom he had a secret three-year affair.

The accusation is contained in an e-mail written by Quinn, a copy of which has been obtained by this newspaper. It charges that Blunkett personally intervened to help Casalme, and accuses him of being “paranoid” and of wanting to “nail me”.

According to a friend of Quinn, Blunkett even sent his official government driver to pick up the nanny’s passport.

On Saturday, Blunkett denied the allegations, saying that he had examined Casalme’s application forms to check that they were correct but had played no role in processing or approving the application.

Blunkett said of Quinn’s allegations: “I am very saddened that someone I cared so deeply for should seek, quite erroneously, to damage my public position. This cannot be in the interests of any of us. I shall continue to keep my private life private and separate from my public duties.”

In a separate development, The Sunday Telegraph has discovered that a DNA test has been taken which confirms that the father of Quinn’s two-year-old son, William, is Blunkett, rather than her husband, Stephen.

Quinn is seven months pregnant with her second child, which may also be Blunkett’s.

The test, which was conducted with the help of one of the Home Secretary’s adult sons from his former marriage, was made last year using samples from William and Blunkett.

It was sent to a private laboratory and the results, which confirmed a match, were returned to Quinn, who read them out to Blunkett, who is blind.

It is the allegations that he used his powers as home secretary to do favours for his mistress, however, that will cause a political storm.

Our investigation reveals that, in addition to his help for the nanny, the home secretary allegedly:

- Shared confidential security information with Quinn, in what a friend of hers described as “pillow talk”. This included advice to her parents to avoid Newark airport, in New York, hours before a security scare and giving Quinn advance knowledge of police raids in Manchester.

– Ordered a policeman to stand outside Quinn’s Mayfair home to safeguard her against anti-capitalist rioting that had been expected during a May Day protest.

– Gave her first-class rail tickets in August 2002 which are thought to have been assigned to him for his work as an MP.

– Put pressure on the American embassy to issue a temporary passport for William Quinn in May 2003, so that Quinn and her son could join him on holiday in France.

– Used his government chauffeur to drive Quinn to his home in Derbyshire for weekend trysts.

– Took Quinn, the publisher of The Spectator, to Spain for a wedding, accompanied by four security men and a driver, with much of the cost allegedly met by the taxpayer.