UK: David Blunkett resigned from Tony Blair's cabinet for the second time in a year yesterday after accepting he "made a mistake" in breaching the government's ministerial guidelines on paid posts taken up by ministers after leaving office.
His second enforced departure came on a black day for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who saw his Commons majority shrink to just one on a vote on the creation of a new offence of encouraging terrorism. Later, Home Secretary Charles Clarke backed down on a proposal to allow terrorism suspects to be held for 90 days without charge. Mr Clarke said he would allow a further week, "in a spirit of flexibility and openness", to seek agreement with MPs on the extent of the detention term to be proposed.
The earlier Labour rebellion came after the silence of cabinet and backbench colleagues had spelled the end for Mr Blunkett, just hours after his defiant assurance on Tuesday night that Mr Blair's decision was made and that the row over his business affairs would not force his resignation.
Westminster watchdogs and the cabinet secretary had confirmed Mr Blunkett had breached the ministerial code on at least three occasions in the four months following his resignation as home secretary last December.
But Mr Blunkett continued to insist yesterday he had done nothing wrong in buying shares in the company DNA Bioscience - from which he or his family might have expected an estimated 20-fold yield following its planned Stock Market flotation next year - just weeks before his return to the cabinet as work and pensions secretary after the general election in May.
Mr Blunkett tendered his resignation only after a second meeting with Mr Blair in Downing Street yesterday morning, at which point Mr Blair "reluctantly" accepted.
Pressed as to why he had changed his mind during the short interval between the two encounters, Mr Blunkett explained: "When you have been in politics as long as I have, you can smell and feel when it is time to step away."
In the Commons, Mr Blair insisted Mr Blunkett's "mistakes" had been the result of "honest misunderstanding" and that he left government "with no stain of impropriety on his character".
However, Mr Blunkett's decision to quit came after reports that Lord Nolan, former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, had said Mr Blair should either sack or demote the minister.
While Mr Blunkett insisted there were no further revelations to come, it emerged last night that he had also been late in officially registering speaking fees of up to £20,000. Reports said Mr Blunkett disclosed the fees only on Tuesday, the deadline for disclosure for inclusion in the next register of MPs' interests, following an 11th-hour review of all his affairs as he battled for survival. Cabinet colleague John Hutton replaces Mr Blunkett.