How did David Blunkett's father die, and what did Blunkett take from it?

David Blunkett was 12 when his father, a foreman in the gas industry who had stayed on past retirement age to train others, fell into a vat at work and was badly scalded. He died after a month in hospital. Blunkett told Alastair Campbell that safety at the works was chronic and that nationalisation had not changed attitudes, which he took as a lesson about centrally run industries.

• Blunkett's father left school at 13 but taught himself geography and current affairs, and tested his son on world capitals.
• Blunkett's mother was already in poor health, having survived breast cancer when it was usually fatal, and was caring for his grandfather.

▸In their words

“It was a lesson to me about centrally run nationalized industries.” David Blunkett · at 8:44 — 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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