ONE of the county's Labour MPs has admitted he urged David Blunkett not to resign from the cabinet.

Dover MP Gwyn Prosser said he believed Mr Blunkett could have stayed in his job but admitted the pressure on the works and pensions minister was becoming relentless.

Mr Blunkett said his position had become untenable amid continuing allegations about a conflict of interests and claims he broke the rules on outside jobs.

Mr Prosser was a close ally of the former home secretary after his involvement in dealing with the impact of asylum on his constituency and the rest of Kent.

He said: "Unless there were new revelations, I think he should have stayed and toughed it out and I wish he had. In fact, I had urged him to stay.

"He was one of the strongest figures in the cabinet. None of the individual misdemeanours amounted to very much but taken together, they did give the perception of someone who had become accident prone and vulnerable."

He acknowledged that the media’s focus on Mr Blunkett’s transgressions on the rules relating to outside jobs could have made it difficult for him to focus on his brief.

But Derek Wyatt, the Sittingbourne and Sheppey Labour MP said: "He has done the decent thing but he should have done it earlier."