What did David Blunkett say about resigning as Home Secretary?

David Blunkett named his resignation as Home Secretary as the worst setback of his political career. He said he was fighting for contact with and responsibility for his very young son, who is now nearly 24, while losing someone he thought he loved and the cabinet role he valued most. He told Alastair Campbell that recovery depended on other people as well as inner tenacity: family, close friends and small gestures of humanity.

• Blunkett recalled walking into a GP surgery where the duty doctor, Margaret, now his wife, offered to make him a cup of tea.
• Blunkett said that if every doctor had time to make a patient a cup of tea, it would be a wonderful health service.

▸In their words

“perseverance doesn't just depend on what's inside you” David Blunkett · at 14:46 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Rest Is Politics (2026-10-31). Read the whole episode summary →

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