Call for more privacy for MPs

Intrusion into the private lives of politicians could damage British politics, the home secretary has warned.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference, David Blunkett said the public in European countries had a "healthy" disregard for what their politicians got up to in their private lives.

Mr Blunkett was referring to the interest in former prime minister John Major's affair with Edwina Currie.

The Europeans do have a much more healthy attitude in terms of private lives as private lives

David Blunkett

He warned that people of talent could be scared away from his profession by such episodes.

He was replying to senior Tory MP Michael Portillo's charge that he was a "neo-puritan" at a fringe meeting at the Blackpool conference.

Former Conservative leadership challenger Mr Portillo also called him an "English Nationalist" and "authoritarian".

Mr Blunkett said he objected only to "puritan".

Major affair

"If we are going to have an encouragement for people to come forward with talent to take part in politics at every level, then we are going to have to persuade the public to detach what we do as politicians on the public stage with what we do in our private lives," he said.

Mr Blunkett added: "The Europeans do have a much more healthy attitude in terms of private lives as private lives."

Mr Portillo also touched on the Major affair, saying that the Tories "are not emphasising the puritan at the moment for reasons you will understand".

Asylum seekers

He also provoked Mr Blunkett with a reference to his recent controversial call for immigrant families to speak English in their homes.

"When I was growing up in my house my parents quite often did not speak English to me," he said.

"But I seem now over a period of time to have become assimilated."

And he joked: "It is not my custom to provide a platform for one so far to the right as David Blunkett."

Mr Blunkett later insisted he had been misrepresented and he had only called for English to be spoken alongside immigrants' first language.