Blunkett 'wanted to shoot rioters'

Whilst he was in office I always said that I thought David Blunkett was a more right wing Home Secretary than even Michael Howard had ever dared to be. Blunkett was always the proof that Blair had, in his desire to please the readers of the Daily Mail, taken the party far too far to the right.

Now we discover:

David Blunkett told the prison service to call in the Army and "machine-gun" inmates during the 2002 Lincoln Prison riots, the former director general of the service has claimed.

American readers may be unfamiliar with the bizarre Mr Blunkett who famously stated that he wanted to open a bottle of champagne when he heard that Harold Shipman had committed suicide.

But even this behaviour pales when one hears of how he reacted to a prison riot.

Martin Narey said the former Home Secretary was "hysterical" when he telephoned him on the evening of the riot, and told him to order staff back into the prison.

Mr Narey, who is now Chief Executive of Barnado's, wrote in The Times: "He shrieked that he didn't care about lives, told me to call in the Army and 'machine-gun' the prisoners and - still shrieking - again ordered me to take the prison back immediately. I refused."

It really says something about Blair's judgement that he ever allowed this nutter to hold high office.

Blunkett denies the allegation, but to anyone who has followed his career the story seems sadly to be only too plausible.

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