Leoncia Casalme insisted the Home Secretary must have become involved in the process which led to the granting of her visa at a later stage than he has previously admitted. She said that AFTER immigration officials wrote to say she may have to wait up to a year for residency to be granted, she raised the problem with Mrs Quinn. Mrs Quinn said: “I’ll see what I can do. I have a friend.”
If Mr Blunkett showed his principal private secretary the letter warning of the delay and not the application forms he is finished.
Since Sunday morning Blunkett and spin doctors have insisted that, acting in a “personal capacity”, he simply asked officials to “look over” the nanny’s initial application form to check it was in “good order”.
But Miss Casalme says the form was posted to the Immigration Service several weeks earlier, suggesting it could not have been handled by the Home Secretary. It now appears Blunkett could not have asked senior officials to check that the application form was correctly completed. Instead, it seems he showed them the letter warning of a delay.
Lo and behold the problem was solved by May 12, when Miss Casalme’s permission to stay indefinitely popped through the letter box. Blunkett’s spin doctors say he “looked over” the original application form. The apparent discrepancy is expected to be one of the key issues for Sir Alan Budd’s investigation.
Guido thinks the odds at William Hill are looking generous (7/2) and has put a tenner on him being out on his ear by New Year.
