THE simmering row between David Blunkett and his former mistress, Kimberly Quinn, turned to farce yesterday with rival supporters of the two speculating on the identity of the father of Lorcan, Quinn’s month-old baby boy.

A senior MP and a television presenter were identified as possible fathers after Blunkett, the former home secretary, was forced to concede that the child was not, after all, his.

A third “candidate”, an Indian media tycoon, issued a firm denial and said it was “too absurd” for words.

The latest chapter in the long-running drama came late on Friday with the disclosure of DNA tests ordered by the High Court.

The Sun newspaper quoted sources close to The Spectator magazine, where Quinn is publisher, suggesting that the real father was a “a leading media figure” from Asia.

He was allegedly the latest in a string of lovers taken by Quinn, whose reputation for a hyperactive love life seems to grow with each new revelation. Her former lovers have included Simon Hoggart, the political journalist, and Lord Leitch, the Labour peer and friend of Tony Blair.

MJ Akbar, the 54-year-old editor of Delhi-based The Asian Age, yesterday said he and Quinn had been friends but their relationship had never gone further than that.

“It’s absurd. I’ve known her for many years [but] we are just good friends,” he said. “These are serious issues and in all honsety I feel very bad for her. She must be going through hell.”

The bitter battle between the two camps continued last night with each accusing the other of leaking the DNA test results.

A friend of Quinn and her husband Stephen said: “I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous or unlikely as the idea that this story came from the Quinns. I know for a fact they didn’t leak the DNA result.

“People are becoming fed up with David Blunkett barging in on this. He has spent months and months claiming to be the father of the unborn child, hounding and embarrassing the Quinns and bombarding them with legal letters, and now it turns out he isn’t the father at all.

“He is just throwing whatever spite he can at the matter, having found out that he is not the father. Stephen’s view is that Blunkett has just been so bullying about the whole thing, writing letter after letter in a sort of obsessed way.”

Speaking outside the family home in London, Stephen Quinn said there was no need for any further DNA test to establish who was Lorcan’s biological father. “No further DNA testing is required because Lorcan is our son. We were asked by the family court division not to [discuss this] and why is that? — to protect our children, protect William and Lorcan. They are our children. We love them, we care for them,” he said.

“We have no obsession with biological details. We have an obsession with our children. That’s it.”

Kimberly Quinn, 44, gave birth by caesarean section last month, six weeks after Blunkett resigned his post. He has taken legal action to gain access to her other son, William, 2, who has been proved by a DNA test to have been fathered by him.

The former cabinet minister’s allies are hoping that the news that he is not the father will boost his prospects of an early return to the cabinet if Labour wins the general election, expected in May.

Political observers had feared he would have been too preoccupied if he was involved in another full-scale court paternity battle over Lorcan.

“Downing Street are relieved because there would have been a prolonged battle over the baby. It would have been a major diversion for David so there is relief there,” said an MP close to Blunkett.

The MP suggested it was the Quinn camp that had leaked the latest DNA results. “David thinks the leak came from the Spectator crowd. He has known for nearly three weeks. He thought [the Quinns] put it out. There must be a row going on in that household. Understandably — what a mess.”

Blunkett was at his cottage in Derbyshire’s Peak District yesterday and issued a statement that he had no part in any leak.

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