UK News 06-12-2004 This Is a Resigning Issue who: Shadow home secretary David Davis what: Says David Blunkett should resign over visa application scandal when: Yesterday snippet: "The pressure on David Blunkett increased yesterday," says The Times, "when senior Conservatives indicated that they will demand his resignation over intervention in the immigration case of his former lover’s nanny." "David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said Mr Blunkett should resign even if Sir Alan Budd`s inquiry acquits him of personally fastracking the visa application of Mrs Quinn`s nanny," reports The Financial Times. Getting embroiled in Leoncia Casalme`s visa application was "a very unwise thing for him to do," says Mr Davis, "and I think this is a resigning issue". Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that Charles Kennedy has criticised Mr Blunkett`s decision to give Mrs Quinn a rail warrant intended for an MP`s spouse. The Liberal Democrat leader called it "an error of judgment" that would have a "corrosive effect on his position". And the bad news for Mr B does not end there. Yesterday`s Scotland on Sunday accused Mr Blunkett of colluding with The News of the World to defame his ex-lover Kimberly Quinn. He allegedly tipped-off a photographer that Mrs Quinn would be visiting his London flat "for a crisis meeting about their ailing relationship" and he "held a meeting lasting up to three hours at his Sheffield home with News of the World editor Andy Coulson - two days before the newspaper published its scoop on the affair". [... more]

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