| Tony Blair has asked the Cabinet Secretary to see if David Blunkett's holding of shares in a DNA testing firm has breached the ministerial code.
The prime minister's spokesman said Sir Gus O'Donnell had been asked to advise after the Conservatives complained.
Mr Blunkett has accepted he should have consulted an advisory committee when he took a DNA Bioscience directorship.
The work and pensions secretary
, who Mr Blair says has his "confidence", has put the shares in a family trust.
'Full support'
The row centres on Mr Blunkett's appointment as director of DNA Bioscience before May's general election, while he was out of the Cabinet, and his holding of shares in the firm.
He was in the job for a fortnight, resigning when he was appointed work and pensions secretary.
The Tories say Mr Blunkett's directorship of DNA Bioscience constituted a conflict of interest because the firm is expected to bid for government contracts.
Ex-ministers are expected to consult an independent advisory committee if they take up paid work within two years of leaving office.
The ministerial code says: "Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises and, or appears to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise."
Mr Blunkett said that "with hindsight it might have been better" to have consulted the committee before taking the job when he was between Cabinet posts.
He said that when he had previously consulted the advisory committee on an unrelated matter in March, he was told that "the voluntary character of the scheme for former ministers is exactly that: it is voluntary".
Shadow Commons leader Chris Grayling said an independent inquiry into Mr Blunkett's business interests was urgently needed to clear the air.
"I think the only way of clearing it up once and for all, is to have a proper inquiry - an external QC for example coming in to listen the people who've given the conflicting evidence and forge a view over what's happened and what hasn't happened," he told BBC News 24.
Mr Grayling added: "The real question must be about his judgment in taking the appointment, buying a stake in the company and continuing to meet members of the family that own the company after his return to office.
"If the company is successful, Mr Blunkett's family stands to make a large amount of money.
"My challenge to the prime minister is, does he feel that this is consistent with both the letter and the spirit of the ministerial code?"
'Clear' process
The prime minister's official spokesman said there was "a process going on", when asked whether "it was appropriate for a minister to hold shares in a company seeking government business".
The spokesman said Mr Blair "wants things to be clear".
"Advice is being sought. Where there are matters of interpretation it's quite reasonable for advice to be sought," he said.
Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell is thought to be managing the process on the prime minister's behalf because the ministerial code is formally run by Mr Blair himself.
Asked on Monday if Mr Blunkett had his full support, the prime minister said: "I do give him my confidence in respect of the allegations about the share holding - I know David's looking into that.
"I think he should be allowed to get on with his job."
David Laws, the Liberal Democrats' work and pensions spokesman, said he thought Mr Blunkett had "done something wrong" and that it was "a serious error of judgement".
A Number 10 source said on Sunday it was "open season" on Mr Blunkett and that he was "being even more traduced than usual".
Mr Blunkett stepped down as home secretary last year over claims his office had fast-tracked a visa application for his lover's former nanny. |
