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Blair 'adored MP Blunkett', reveals new book
TONY Blair "adored and deeply admired" David Blunkett - but said the Sheffield MP quit as his Home Secretary after "he picked the wrong woman" to fall in love with.
Mr Blair's memoirs, published yesterday, repeatedly heaps praise on Mr Blunkett's work for the Labour government, describing him as a "truly decent guy, a great political talent."
He said the Brightside MP was a "remarkable example of someone who spent a lifetime in politics but could think like a human being" and said they had the "same instincts" for modernisation.
The former PM said he felt "really sorry" for Mr Blunkett after he quit the cabinet following the revelation of his relationship with Kimberly Quinn, the married American publisher of The Spectator magazine.
"He had allowed himself to fall for someone who was wholly unsuitable and married, and who had also conceived their child."
Mr Blunkett quit - the first of two cabinet resignations - after an e-mail emerged showing a visa application for his ex-lover's nanny had been fast-tracked.
Mr Blair said the media "were going to invent something to get him out" and that the visa allegations "didn't actually amount to anything".
He added: "I adored and deeply admired David, and also found his whole attitude over his child - he wouldn't give up on access, despite the threat of publicity if he proceeded - very principled. He was a truly decent guy, a great political talent. He picked the wrong woman. Easy to do. Fatal in politics."
The autobiography, A Journey, has risked prompting Labour Party infighting after he said his successor Gordon Brown could be "maddening" and accused him of lacking "emotional intelligence".
Mr Blair said he was a "strange guy" who, while he had "enormous ability", had "no instinct at the human, gut level".
He also said a TV investigation into the controversial Doncaster Academy proved his radical school reforms were working.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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