MP piles pressure on Blunkett
David Blunkett appears "quite seriously unbalanced" and should resign as Home Secretary, a Labour MP said today.
The call followed reports that under-pressure Mr Blunkett stunned Labour MPs by singing Fred Astaire's Pick Yourself Up at a Christmas party.
Bob Marshall-Andrews joined fellow backbenchers in urging the Home Secretary to go after claims a second visa for his ex-lover's nanny was "fast-tracked".
Cabinet colleagues again came to Mr Blunkett's defence, urging people to wait for Sir Alan Budd's inquiry into the original allegations that he abused his position, expected within days.
But Mr Marshall-Andrews said: "The truth is that the Budd investigation is now assuming almost a secondary role...
"I think one is dealing here with somebody who it appears, certainly to many people in the Commons and the country, is quite seriously unbalanced."
The Budd inquiry should examine the new allegation about an Austrian visa, the Medway MP told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
However, Mr Marshall-Andrews said: "There is a general view that there is now a serious failure to understand the difference between the man on the one hand and the office on the other."
Prime Minister Tony Blair had behaved like the Roman Emperor Caligula by pre-judging its findings and saying Mr Blunkett will be cleared, the MP continued.
"It is the Caligula principle really. Caligula made his horse a senator.
"He did it not because he thought his horse would be a good senator but because he wanted to demonstrate he could do what he wanted to do.
"Unfortunately that is becoming apparent with this Government."
The MP said he had believed Mr Blunkett was unfit to be Home Secretary since he said he had celebrated mass murderer Dr Harold Shipman's suicide in prison.
"What has happened since has simply compounded that view. It was a view that was a minority view when I first heard it, but I think that it is now gaining a great deal of currency," he added.
