Blunkett wants an estate agent's babies

Blunkett told a woman half his age that he wanted to have children with her only weeks after meeting her on a date.

The secretary of state for work and pensions, 58, who previously resigned as home secretary amid a row over his love child, told the 29-year-old that she had not yet been “blessed with children” because she had not found the right person. In a serious tone, he added: “Maybe that’s where I might come in.” Friends of Sally Anderson, an estate agent from Ascot in Berkshire, revealed this weekend the extent of her relationship with Blunkett. Speaking with her agreement that the relationship should be made public, they said that it had become “intimate” rather than “platonic”, as the minister had implied.

Remarkably, Blunkett’s suggestion that Anderson might have children with him was made after just a few meetings. The revelation will provide further ammunition to critics who have called into question his judgment after his personal life has once again made headlines.

His supporters, meanwhile, threaten a new privacy law if the “unwarranted” media intrusion continues.

Since details of their relationship came to light eight days ago, Anderson has paid a heavy price. She has been forced to move out of her home and now fears for her job. According to friends, she has received “frightening” telephone calls from people close to Blunkett, telling her not to speak to the press.

One Labour MP said: “It is clear the prime minister still holds David in high regard.” But other colleagues are less tolerant. Another said: “There is a sense he is becoming unstable.” Sources close to Blunkett insisted last week that his relationship with Anderson was platonic. He had “eaten dinner with her — that’s the top and bottom of it”, they said. However, Anderson’s friends give a different account.

The couple’s first meeting was a blind date over dinner at Annabel’s, an exclusive nightclub in Mayfair. It was arranged by a friend, Tariq Siddiqui. He told her there was someone he wanted her to meet. She had no idea who it was and was taken aback when Blunkett turned up to join them for dinner. But according to her friends, Yorkshire-born Anderson and the minister hit it off immediately.

They included a second dinner date at Annabel’s, arranged by Siddiqui, and they also spent time at Blunkett’s “grace-and-favour” residence in Eaton Place, west London. Blunkett also offered to help Anderson, who wants to publish a novel about eating disorders and other difficulties facing young women. She has told friends that she “dare not say” exactly how he had said that he could help her, but insists she refused all his offers. Siddiqui, 54, who met Anderson when she was 16, would seem an unlikely acquaintance for Blunkett. He became prominent in London society when he organised a festival in 1991 for the Guards Polo Club, based in Windsor Great Park. Placido Domingo and the London Symphony Orchestra entertained a crowd of 150,000, but the event lost tens of thousands of pounds.

In November 1993 it was reported that he was fighting to stave off bankruptcy. “I have very considerable debts,” Siddiqui admitted at the time. “In order to prevent me from going bankrupt my family have agreed they will make £20,000 available for the purposes of a voluntary arrangement.”

Siddiqui’s brother, Muhammed Naviede, was involved in the Manchester finance group Arrow, which collapsed in the early 1990s with debts of £120m. Naviede was jailed in 1995 on fraud charges relating to the company’s collapse.

Siddiqui was not involved in the Arrow affair. He has a home in Berkeley Square and a modern detached house in Surbiton, Surrey. Lucy, his wife, is a director of DNA Bioscience, which specialises in providing paternity tests.

Blunkett had agreed to become a non-executive director, but on rejoining the government he was obliged to give it up. For his paternity battle he used another company.

“None of this is a hanging offence,” said a Labour MP. “There is still a feeling, we think, among the general public and some in the party that he has had to put up with a lot in life and needs to be given a break.”

The Sunday Times - JOHN-PAUL FLINTOFF AND JON UNGOED-THOMAS DAVID