64 Facts About David Blunkett

On 20 June 2014, Blunkett announced to his constituency party that he would be standing down from the House of Commons at the next general election in May 2015.

David Blunkett is the honorary president of the Association for Citizenship Teaching.

David Blunkett was born on 6 June 1947 at Jessop Hospital, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, with improperly developed optic nerves due to a rare genetic disorder.

David Blunkett was educated at schools for the blind in Sheffield and Shrewsbury.

David Blunkett attended the Royal National College for the Blind.

David Blunkett was apparently told at school that one of his few options in life was to become a lathe operator.

David Blunkett entered local politics on graduation, whilst gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Huddersfield Holly Bank College of Education.

David Blunkett spent a total of six years going to evening classes and day-release classes to get the qualifications needed to go to university.

David Blunkett worked as a clerk typist between 1967 and 1969 and as a lecturer in industrial relations and politics between 1973 and 1981.

In 1970, at the age of 22, David Blunkett became the youngest-ever councillor on Sheffield City Council and in Britain, being elected while a mature student.

David Blunkett was elected on the same day as fellow Labour member Bill Michie, who, like Blunkett, would go on to serve as a Sheffield MP.

David Blunkett served on Sheffield City Council from 1970 to 1988, and was leader from 1980 to 1987.

David Blunkett served on South Yorkshire County Council from 1973 to 1977.

David Blunkett became known as the leader of one of Labour's left-wing councils, sometimes described pejoratively as "loony left".

David Blunkett was one of the faces of the protest over rate-capping in 1985 which saw several Labour councils refuse to set a budget in a protest against Government powers to restrain their spending.

David Blunkett built up support within the Labour Party during his time as the council's leader during the 1980s, and was elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.

David Blunkett became a party spokesman on local government, joined the shadow cabinet in 1992 as shadow health secretary and became shadow education secretary in 1994.

David Blunkett was rewarded with extra funding to cut class sizes, notably by abolishing the Assisted Places Scheme.

David Blunkett provided large scale investment in universities in the UK and one study, published in 2011, showed that universities are now educating more than one-quarter more students than they did previously, and receiving double the income.

Whilst in this position, David Blunkett launched Learning and Skills Councils, created Jobcentre Plus and had responsibility for the Equal Opportunities Commission, as well as establishing the Disability Rights Commission.

At the start of the Labour government's second term in 2001, David Blunkett was promoted to home secretary, fulfilling an ambition of his.

David Blunkett brought in new anti-terrorism measures, including detention without trial of suspect foreign nationals who could not be extradited or deported.

David Blunkett authorised MI5 to start collecting bulk telephone communications data on which telephone numbers called each other under a general power brought in by the Telecommunications Act 1984.

In 2006, Martin Narey, the former director general of the prison service, claimed that David Blunkett had once told him to use the army and machine guns to deal with rioting prisoners.

In 2004, it emerged that David Blunkett had directed Home Office civil servants to closely monitor and counter the findings of Migration Watch UK, which controversially included manipulating the timing of statistical releases to avoid criticism from the pressure group.

David Blunkett resigned as home secretary on 15 December 2004, amidst allegations that he helped fast-track the renewal of a work permit for his ex-lover's nanny.

David Blunkett is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

On 24 June 2014, Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World and head of communications for David Blunkett Cameron, was found guilty of a charge of conspiracy to intercept voicemails.

One aspect of criminal justice changes which David Blunkett later indicated he regretted most was introducing imprisonment for public protection in the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

David Blunkett was instrumental, with others across parliament, in bringing about substantial change in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, which saw 1800 IPP prisoners on license released from those conditions in November 2024.

Later that morning, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed David Blunkett had resigned at the meeting, stating that his position had become untenable.

David Blunkett was later found not to have broken the ministerial code.

On 25 November 2005, after he had resigned, Gus O'Donnell wrote to David Blunkett confirming that there was no conflict of interest, no failure to declare either David Blunkett's shareholding or brief business connection with the company.

David Blunkett is a vice president of the Royal National Institute of Blind People and a vice president of the Alzheimer's Society, and has close links with a range of other charities including those relating to breast cancer, and is a patron of the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion.

David Blunkett is a patron of The Micro and Anophthalmic Children's Society, a charity for children born without eyes or with underdeveloped eyes.

David Blunkett is additionally a former honorary chair of the Information Systems Security Association Advisory Board and was, until March 2015, chairman of the not-for-profit International Cyber Security Protection Alliance.

Since then, David Blunkett has commenced putting together and becoming a founder of the Future For Youth Foundation, which sought to tackle high levels of unemployment in young people, and which concluded its work in the summer of 2015.

David Blunkett was later awarded status as an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2013, Sheffield University announced David Blunkett had become a visiting professor in the Department of Politics, in the world's first Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics.

David Blunkett was, from 2012 to 2018, a trustee of the government-sponsored, major volunteer programme known as the National Citizen Service Trust, a voluntary community service programme for 16- and 17-year-olds.

Between June 2013 and May 2014, David Blunkett led a review into local oversight of schools and the raising of standards for the leader Ed Miliband and the shadow education secretary.

The David Blunkett Report was published in May 2014, and called for the creation of new independent Directors of School Standards to operate between local authorities.

In June 2014, David Blunkett announced he would not be contesting the election in the following year, stating that he had realised he would not be returning to the frontbenches.

In 2013, David Blunkett joined the advisory board of global wealth consultancy Oracle Capital Group, continuing in that role until 2017.

David Blunkett resigned in 2017, along with several others members of the board, when the sponsor would not acknowledge or take action on major issues raised about governance procedures, and the blocking of an independent review initiated by Blunkett and the then Chief Executive Wendy Marshall.

David Blunkett was appointed as Professor of Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield in June 2015.

David Blunkett published a light-hearted dog-oriented memoir called On a Clear Day, published by Michael O'Mara Books in 1995.

David Blunkett has co-authored a number of publications, including Building from the Bottom, published by the Fabian Society, and Democracy in Crisis, published by Hogarth, which described the battle between local and central government in the Thatcher years.

David Blunkett has contributed chapters to many books relating to politics and social policy and has produced research papers with the University of Sheffield.

Outside politics, David Blunkett enjoys a career as a popular conference and after-dinner speaker.

David Blunkett took part in a celebrity version of Mastermind, where his specialist subject was Harry Potter.

David Blunkett was featured on the Channel Five documentary series Banged Up in 2008.

David Blunkett appeared as a celebrity chef, competing against Gordon Ramsay, on season 4 episode 4 of the British television series The F Word.

In 2018, David Blunkett featured on the University Challenge Christmas editions, representing Sheffield.

David Blunkett divorced his wife of 20 years, Ruth Mitchell, by whom he had three sons, in 1990.

In 2005, The People newspaper launched a cycle of media speculation about David Blunkett's alleged relationship with a young woman.

In January 2009, David Blunkett announced that he was engaged to be married to Margaret Williams, a doctor in Sheffield.

David Blunkett suffered a heart attack on 25 July 2024 while on holiday in Italy he was rushed to hospital and had stents implanted.

David Blunkett was subject to further substantial treatment on his return to Sheffield.

David Blunkett was portrayed by Phil Cornwell in The Comic Strip Presents' 1992 film Red Nose of Courage.

David Blunkett was portrayed in series 3 episode 1 of the ITV series Ultimate Force.

David Blunkett was introduced in the final scene as "The Home Secretary" with a shot of his feet and guide dog arriving to congratulate red troop on a successful operation.

David Blunkett was parodied in the TV comedy Believe Nothing.

David Blunkett appears regularly both on news and magazine programmes, and he was the subject of an episode of The House I Grew Up In.