THE cabinet minister David Blunkett is this weekend under pressure to explain his financial and personal links to a controversial businessman who introduced him to a 29-year-old blonde.

Blunkett was paid by a company owned by the family of Tariq Siddiqi, a flamboyant businessman with a chequered past. The company said he was paid for almost three months’ work. If this is true, Blunkett should have made a formal declaration to parliament.

However, the minister insists he did only two weeks’ work immediately before this year’s general election and therefore has broken no rules as technically he had resigned as an MP to stand for re-election.

The Conservatives this weekend called for an investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner. Chris Grayling, shadow leader of the house, said Blunkett, the work and pensions secretary, was “not fit for the cabinet” and that his behaviour was “getting ridiculous”.

Former associates of Siddiqi are staggered that a high-profile politician would ever have become embroiled in his dealings.

Siddiqi, the archetypal wheeler-dealer, has left behind a trail of bankrupt companies and creditors over the past 15 years. In the 1980s he was briefly the manager of Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son, before he began organising concerts at the Guards Polo Club. The venture collapsed, leaving heavy losses.

In the 1990s he ran several other enterprises, including the Stress Relief Centre, which also collapsed. He then set up a chauffeuring business based in Mayfair, London, to transport rich clients, including the Saudi royal family. This firm went bankrupt in 2000 leaving behind 92 creditors owed tens of thousands of pounds.

One creditor, Terry Martin of the TM Chauffeur Group, said: “He’s not trustworthy. He gave me a dud cheque for nearly £5,000.”

Martin even reported Siddiqi to the fraud squad, although he is not under investigation. “I can’t believe David Blunkett’s advisers did not steer him clear of someone like that,” he said.

Blunkett first met Siddiqi in Annabel’s, the London nightclub, probably last year. While he was out of office, having resigned as home secretary last December, he took up a nonexecutive post at DNA Structures, which trades as DNA Bioscience, a business offering DIY paternity tests and carrying out work for the government.

Siddiqi’s wife Lucy is a director of the firm and the company is largely owned by members of Siddiqi’s family, via an offshore trust thought to be controlled by a younger brother. Siddiqi’s £1m mansion in Surrey is also owned by an offshore trust registered at the same address in Guernsey.

According to the company’s records, Blunkett took up his position at DNA Structures only a fortnight before the general election and he resigned the day after the vote, on returning to the cabinet.

John Coles, a spokesman for the company, insisted that Blunkett had been paid for work spanning almost three months before resigning. “It was about three months and he was paid,” he said. “To be honest, he didn’t have much time to do very much work at all. He joined in February. I don’t know where they got that from (that Blunkett only joined in April).”

A spokesman for Blunkett said: “It categorically is not true that he worked for longer than the [two-week] period stated. This has been declared to the House of Commons, the Electoral Commission and the permanent secretary.”

A little more than a month after Blunkett resigned from the firm, Siddiqi arranged a date for him with Sally Anderson, an estate agent. They met at Annabel’s, where it is claimed Blunkett enjoyed honorary membership for four years but failed to declare it in the Commons register of members’ interests.

A spokesman admitted Blunkett was offered free membership in 2001, but said he had never taken it up and when he met Anderson he was signed in as a member’s guest. Their dinner was followed by six or seven meetings and the couple also spent time at Blunkett’s “grace and favour” residence in London.

Yesterday, Anderson, who has known Siddiqi since she was a schoolgirl, was accused of being involved in a “honeytrap” to snare the minister. The Daily Mail claimed an anonymous woman, “almost certainly” Anderson, tipped newspapers off about the dates with Blunkett and asked for money in return.

Additional reporting: Claire Newell

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