MONDAY INTERVIEW: David Blunkett Former Home Secretary - `I'd like to Come Back but Have to Earn It. That Means the Graft of Getting Round the Country'

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THE SNIFFER dog, a spaniel, was the first clue. Then the small posse of police wearing earpieces and flak jackets confirmed the suspicions. The target was heading for platform five at King's Cross station.

David Blunkett walked briskly on to the platform with his dog, flanked by the armed police escort and his personal bodyguards, who always travel with him. The former home secretary has many enemies.

There are the al-Qa'ida fanatics who threaten a terrorist attack on the forthcoming election and would view the man who ordered the detention without trial of suspects in Belmarsh as a prime target.

There are the cabinet ministers he laid into in the …