Blunkett grovels to cabinet

David Blunkett was today forced into an embarrassing round of apologies to his Cabinet colleagues.

The Home Secretary was telephoning senior colleagues, including Gordon Brown and Jack Straw, to say sorry after a book quoted his withering assessments of their abilities.

There was no denial from his office that the quotations - variously describing ministers as "soft", "a mess" and "weak" - were accurate.

Instead, Mr Blunkett's aide offered a shamefaced mea culpa, blaming his outbursts on him "having a bad day".

"You can take it he will be on the phone making his apologies to them," said an aide. "He will be talking to them all.

These comments were made in an interview about a year ago. David was having a very bad day and just let rip. It was just after the ID cards issue came up.

"It was a day when nobody could do anything right. Mother Teresa would have got both barrels on that day. He should not have said these things. Just because he was like a bear with a sore head, he should not have taken it out on other people."

Mr Blunkett has a famously explosive temper but is normally careful about what he says in public. The comments will not help his battle to survive allegations that he fast-tracked a visa for his ex-lover's nanny.

He was interviewed by journalist Stephen Pollard for a biography, originally due to come out in the New Year but being serialised now in the Daily Mail. During the taped conversation he made various observations, including:

Mr Blair's office today refused to discuss Mr Blunkett's comments about colleagues. The Prime Minister's spokesman said: "I am not getting involved in a book review."

But Mr Blunkett's Cabinet support was described as "secure" by one of the ministers he criticised.

Another Cabinet colleague, one of Mr Blunkett's closest allies, put the blame for the row at the door of his ex-lover Kimberly Quinn. The minister said: "This is a vendetta by a woman whose purpose is to bring him down. There is a pretty well established campaign of vilification against him."

The ally also said Mr Blunkett was in no mood to resign. "If you are going through something like this, you have to hold onto your hat - it is like a tornado. He is very determined to carry on and to see it through."

Mrs Quinn will give written evidence to the inquiry into whether her former nanny was "fast-tracked" for a visa. She will not be cross-examined because of poor health, a source said.

Inquiry chief Sir Alan Budd is due to deliver his verdict on whether Mr Blunkett influenced the visa decision by the end of the week or early next week.

Political pressure on Mr Blunkett has increased amid claims that an " overzealous" immigration official speeded up the visa after the Home Secretary intervened personally.

In what could be the most damaging revelation, it emerged that Mr Blunkett chaired a meeting with immigration staff days after the nanny had received a letter warning of a year's delay to her visa. He accused officials of not doing enough to carry out promises to clear backlogs.

But Constitutional Affairs Secretary Lord Falconer today predicted Mr Blunkett would keep his job. "What you do with your private life, as long as it is not illegal, should be left alone," he said.

In a separate revelation, Mr Blunkett turned out to have had another affair while a Cabinet minister, this time with an official in the Education Department.

The "messy" 1999 fling with Denise Maguire, 39, began while she was living with another civil servant, Andy Hurdle. Mr Hurdle was said to have told colleagues "the Secretary of State stole my girlfriend" but when the affair ended he and Ms Maguire were reconciled and now have a child.

The new biography gives a candid account of Mr Blunkett's affair with Mrs Quinn. They met at a dinner with Spectator editor Boris Johnson in June 2001. She married Stephen Quinn late in 2001 but within weeks, in January 2002, the minister was her lover.

Mrs Quinn became pregnant within weeks of the start of her relationship with Mr Blunkett and in September 2002, William was born. Mr Blunkett spent five days visiting the hospital without the affair becoming public knowledge. Within weeks of the birth, Mrs Quinn was keen to have a DNA test because she and her husband were undergoing fertility treatment at the time the child was conceived. Another test was conducted a year later "because she, not Blunkett, wanted further confirmation". Both tests showed Mr Blunkett was the father, the book claims.

In May this year, Mrs Quinn again fell pregnant. This time, she did not tell Mr Blunkett. By September she had decided to stay with her husband and deny Mr Blunkett access.