David Blunkett has admitted making a "big, big mistake" in criticising Cabinet colleagues last year.

The former home secretary gave his first media interviews over the weekend, marking his comeback to frontline politics.

The Sheffield MP resigned from the government in December last year after a long running row over whether he used his position to fast track a visa for his lover's nanny.

But in the middle of the furore he angered fellow ministers by criticising them in comments made to his biographer Stephen Pollard.

Blunkett said his predecessor Jack Straw had left the Home Office "in a mess" while his successor Charles Clarke has "gone soft" as education secretary.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday he said: "Honest about it. Spoke to all colleagues. Understand that very well.

"Part of learning humility and also learning to keep your mouth shut sometimes.

"I will always speak my mind. I will always say it as it is. I can't change completely, but I can learn.

"In my own life, I would like to learn from what's happened and I would like to find happiness and I think all of us would like that."

'Tragedy'

Blunkett also described the breakdown of his affair with married magazine publisher Kimberly Quinn as a "tragedy".

He told the Breakfast with Frost programme that all those involved were still having a "terrible time".

"Honestly, it was a tragedy," he said. "There's nothing in the least bit entertaining about what's taken place and I'd just like people to let all of us, all of us, get on with our private lives.

"When my private life and my public life were conjoined together there was nothing I could do about that, but it's over."

In a separate interview in the Guardian on Saturday he said he still hoped to use his campaigning role in the election to win a comeback to the Cabinet.

"You don't return to the frontline simply on your past; you have something to offer for the future," he said.

"In the campaign I have to get out there and make it clear that if Tony [Blair] wants me, I'd be a plus not a minus."