Blunkett quizzed over race aide

Blunkett knew about his aide's philosophical writings

Home Secretary David Blunkett is facing questions about his special adviser on race after it was revealed the aide had questioned equal opportunities laws.

Matt Cavanagh two years ago suggested it might be "rational" for employers to discriminate against black job applicants in some circumstances.

A Liberal Democrat peer is tabling parliamentary questions about the aide.

Mr Cavanagh used to be a philosophy lecturer and his defenders say he was performing a proper academic exercise.

Customer prejudice

The comments came in a book entitled Against Equality of Opportunity, which was published when he was working at Oxford University.

He said: "A company realises that its customers, who are predominantly white, tend to prefer to do business with white staff.

"Depending on how strong this preference is, it might be rational for the company to discriminate against black applicants on the basis that, for this reason alone, they tend to be less good at the job."

Policy role

Mr Cavanagh suggested that when an employer was translating prejudice into effect, it should not be unlawful unless there was "unwarranted contempt" or very extreme discrimination.

"At the very least he is left with dirty hands," he continued. "But perhaps this is not the kind of wrongdoing that warrants state intervention.

"We might think that whether he keeps his hands clean is a matter for his conscience alone."

Lib Dem peer Lord Lester, who was special adviser to then Home Secretary Roy Jenkins when the equal opportunities laws were drawn up, wants to know if Mr Blunkett agrees with his aide's views.

Special advisers, unlike civil servants, were the personal choice of ministers and played a crucial policy role, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He said: "I do not care about Matt Cavanagh's view personally, I believe in free speech...

"What worries me is that the home secretary - who is dealing with highly sensitive matters about race legislation, asylum, immigration, what the equality and human rights commission should do - why he should choose a person of this kind to advise him.

"It seems to me that it is going to undermine confidence not in the special adviser but in the judgement of the home secretary."

Academic arguments

Lord Lester also complained it was difficult to find out the exact roles of special advisers.

Mr Blunkett has stood by his adviser.

His spokesman said: "What has been written is an academic, philosophical analysis.

"It is not a programme for political action and David is the politician who makes the decisions at the end of the day.

"He has spent 40 years in elected politics developing equal opportunities.

"He was aware of the contents of the book when he appointed Matt but, if you choose a political philosophy lecturer as an adviser, he will have grappled with philosophical and theoretical arguments that they did not necessarily sign up to in their entirety."

Attacks 'unfair'

Mr Cavanagh himself told the Guardian newspaper he was not sure he stood by the comments in the book.

"It is a complicated area. The question I'm trying to raise in the book, written for an academic philosophical audience, not a political audience, is irrelevant to what I do now," he said.

In a letter to the Guardian, left-wing academic Bernard Crick said attacks on Mr Cavanagh were completely unfair.

Prof Crick said the aide's book "was a philosophical exercise against bad arguments for good things and against leaving unexamined allegedly self-evident propositions like equality of opportunity".

He added: "I know him well and that kind of academic exercise."