Blunkett: 'I didn't see dodgy dossier'
9 Oct 2006 by Peter Cameron
David Blunkett today sensationally claimed that he could not be blamed for the inaccuracies of the so-called "dodgy dossier" on Iraq because he had not seen a copy before its publication. "Whenever we got on to the subject of the dossier in cabinet meetings the whole room would fall silent," said the former Home Secretary. "Alastair Campbell and the Prime Minister would then pass notes between each other. They knew I was sceptical about the whole thing, so they deliberately cut me out of the production process."Downing Street issued a brief statement denying Blunkett's allegations, claiming that he could have had a more prominent role in meetings "if he hadn't spent so much time playing with his dog". Equally, the statement said, John Prescott could have had a greater role had he not been sent to Scotland by the Prime Minister.
Blunkett, whose memoirs are currently being serialised in the Daily Mail, spoke of the intense pressure he was under in his final days as Home Secretary. "I was having six affairs and I simply couldn't find the time to keep them all happy because work kept getting in the way," he said. "In the end I just signed anything that was put on my desk - visa applications, government warrants, anything. Some of the names on the visas looked suspicious; there was an al-Zarqawi, a Bin Laden, but I just gave them the benefit of the doubt and signed the forms without really thinking."
Blunkett eventually asked John Prescott to help share his workload but the Deputy Prime Minister said that he already had his hands full in his own department.
