The Conservatives have urged the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, to consider his position as returns to his office this morning, after a weekend of mounting criticism of his handling of the publication of the Macpherson report on the death of Stephen Lawrence.
While Mr Straw spent the weekend in the south of France with his wife, he was accused of presiding over a "woeful" series of events, which began with the leaking of extracts of the Macpherson report and the embarrassing publication in the appendix of names and addresses of police informants.
The publication of the informants' details was discovered on Thursday morning and prompted the Home Office to immediately withdraw the second volume of the report, but not before hundreds of copies were distributed and led to several of those named seeking police protection.
The Home Office Minister, Mr Paul Boateng, who apologised for the error in publication in an emergency statement in the Commons last week, again insisted his department bore no responsibility for the inclusion of the details in the appendix. He said the report was handed to the government and its responsibility was to publish the report in full without making any amendments.
Soeaking on ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme, Mr Boat eng also denied that he was responsible for leaking extracts of the report to the media before its publication last week.
"It seems to me it's all part of a diversion, all of this, all this fuss, the attack on Jack Straw, the fuss around the leak, the regrettable and tragic circumstances of the inclusion of a document that ought never to have been included. All of that is a diversion from the real issue, and the real issue is racism and how as a society we can combat racism," Mr Boateng said.
But the shadow home secretary, Sir Norman Fowler, said the publication of the Macpherson report was one error after another and in the light of recent events Mr Straw "should be considering his position".
Speaking on BBC's On the Re- cord, Sir Norman argued that instead of going on holiday, Mr Straw should have taken responsibility for the situation and ensured witnesses had not been put in danger. Asked if Mr Straw should have apologised personally for the mistaken publication, he replied: "Yes. No question or doubt about it whatsoever."
The Bishop of Stepney, the Right Rev Dr John Sentamu, a member of the inquiry team, reiterated on BBC's Breakfast with Frost that the inquiry took "full responsibility" for the mistaken inclusion of the details in the publication of the report.
Bishop Sentamu said Sir William and his advisers had apologised, and the fault lay with the inquiry team and not the government: "We take solid blame. It was a judicial inquiry. You wouldn't expect actually the government to interfere with a judicial inquiry report. It is almost like the government should have tampered with a judge's judgment. That can't be the case. The responsibility is ours."
Meanwhile, in a direct message to Britain's black community, the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, has acknowledged there is "a mountain to climb" before Britain can have a multicultural society it can be proud of.
In an article published in the New Nation newspaper today, Mr Blair says: "The government's role is to give sensible leadership, and I have no doubt whatever that it is towards a more tolerant Britain, a more inclusive Britain, a Britain of all the talents that the vast majority of black and white people wish to be led."