LONDON, Dec. 2
Britain's homeland security czar, one of the most powerful members of Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, is embroiled in a political sex scandal with his former mistress that threatens to torpedo his career.
Home Secretary David Blunkett, 57, is struggling against allegations in newspaper reports that he fast-tracked a visa application for his married lover's nanny and committed other abuses of office. What makes the allegations particularly striking is that they appear to have originated with the former lover herself, American-born magazine publisher Kimberly Quinn, 44, in retaliation for Blunkett's attempt to establish that he is the father of her 2-year-old son and unborn child.
Kimberly and Stephen Quinn, at left, deny that British Home Secretary David Blunkett, Kimberly Quinn's former lover, is the father of their 2-year-old son and unborn child.
(Kieran Doherty -- Reuters)
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Say what you will about the British, they do sex scandals better than just about anybody else.
This one involves one of Britain's most popular and outspoken politicians, a man of blue-collar roots and strong law-and-order convictions who happens to be blind; the publisher of the Spectator, a conservative weekly, who is an American with a degree from Vassar and a flirtatious reputation; and her husband, Stephen Quinn, 60, publisher of the British edition of Vogue magazine, who until recently, according to newspaper accounts, was unaware that the children might not be his.
It all began in the middle of August, known here as the silly season for political coverage because most of the country is on vacation. The tabloid News of the World disclosed that Blunkett, who is divorced, was passionately in love with an unnamed married woman with whom he had conducted a three-year affair. The next day the Sun tabloid revealed Quinn's name and reported that the affair had reached a crossroads. Both Blunkett and Quinn issued statements admitting nothing and demanding their privacy.
Among the chattering classes of politics and the media here, the affair wasn't much of a secret. Quinn was frequently seen on Blunkett's arm at parties and receptions. She even sat next to him at the state banquet for President Bush at Buckingham Palace last November.
Things quieted down until 12 days ago, when the News of the World reported that Blunkett had sent a formal letter to Quinn's lawyers demanding the right to prove he is the father of her children. The Daily Mail said he had been devastated when Quinn broke off their affair in the summer to save her marriage and he feared he would not be allowed to see the children unless he legally established paternity.
At first the Quinns denied Blunkett's paternity. But he was reported to have already taken a preliminary DNA test that indicated he was indeed the father of 2-year-old William. Other unseemly allegations were reported, all of them attributed to "friends" of one side or the other: that Quinn and Blunkett had begun their affair just three months after her marriage to Stephen Quinn, whom she had met while previously married to American banker Michael Fortier; that Stephen Quinn had had a vasectomy reversal to attempt to have children with Kimberly; and that Blunkett had obsessively phoned Kimberly Quinn after she ended the affair.
The Quinns appear to have struck back last weekend with a front-page report in the Sunday Telegraph, owned by the same company as the Spectator. The newspaper quoted from an e-mail written by Kimberly Quinn that accused Blunkett of personally fast-tracking her Filipina nanny's visa application. The Telegraph added other allegations: that Blunkett gave Quinn two first-class railway tickets that were supposed to be available only to the spouses and children of Parliament members; that he had had her driven in his official car for weekend visits to his country cottage; and that two senior civil servants from the Home Office met with her at her lawyer's office and tried to get her to sign a public statement saying her marriage to Stephen Quinn was over.
Blunkett finally emerged from his official silence to insist he had done nothing wrong and call for an official investigation. "I've spent 34 years in politics . . . building people's trust," he told reporters. "I don't intend to throw it away."
He won the backing of his boss, Prime Minister Blair, who announced at a press conference Monday: "Politicians are entitled to private lives, the same as anyone else."
Still, the allegations linger. On Wednesday the Daily Mail published copies of letters from the Home Office addressed to the nanny, Leoncia Casalme. The first, dated April 23, 2003, confirmed her application for a permanent resident's visa but warned that the waiting period "is about 12 months at the moment." Nineteen days later she got a second letter granting the visa. In between, Casalme told the Mail, her employer said she had contacted an unnamed "friend."
The Home Office has said it fast-tracked many applications during that time and did not show favoritism to Casalme. It confirmed that the two civil servants had met with Quinn but said they only gave her advice on how to deal with the media.
Blunkett's friends are telling the press he is still determined to establish paternity. Meanwhile, Stephen Quinn emerged from the couple's $3.5 million house in London's Mayfair district to tell reporters he is standing by his wife, who is seven months pregnant and has been hospitalized because of stress and exhaustion.
"To most politicians, survival is all that matters, but I don't think that's true of David Blunkett," says Max Clifford, a public relations specialist who has brokered many a political scandal here for the News of the World and other tabloids. "But the British public really warm to him. If it's proven that he pushed this thing in 19 days, I can't see how he can stay in his post, but I think the public want him to stay."
Extramarital affairs that turn excruciatingly public seem to be an ongoing theme at the Spectator. Recent newspaper reports revealed that the magazine's editor, Boris Johnson, a Conservative member of Parliament who is married and has four children, had conducted a long-running affair with columnist Petronella Wyatt. Meanwhile, Rod Liddle, 44, an associate editor, left his wife for Alicia Munckton, a 23-year-old receptionist at the magazine. Liddle, Munckton and Liddle's estranged spouse, Rachel Royce, 42, have all written extensively about these affairs in various newspapers.
"Someone should bottle that magazine's tap water,'' opined the Guardian newspaper in an editorial.
