Filipino Nanny in visa row is keeping quiet, even to her family

The mother of the Filipino nanny whose visa application David Blunkett is accused of having fast-tracked wept when she learned of the controversy surrounding her daughter last week and said: 'I wish my girl would come home.'

Augustina Casalme, 69, said: 'I don't know what Luz [Leoncia] is caught up in and she hasn't told us anything about it. I just wish she'd come home and at least spend Christmas here with her family. We all miss her so very much. She hasn't been home for five years and she's never even seen her baby nephew.'

But Mrs Casalme, a widow and grandmother of 10, added: 'Luz must make her own decisions. She is independent and grown up and she will decide when the time is right to come home.'

Luz Casalme has told her family, who live in Batangas province in the Philippines, nothing about the controversy involving her permanent British visa and has not even told them that she left her employer Kimberly Quinn, Mr Blunkett's former mistress, in October.

'We haven't spoken to Luz for about a month and when we last spoke we just chatted about the family,' her mother said. 'She didn't tell me anything about any of this. We didn't know about any of it until you arrived. When we spoke to her, she always seemed so happy with her work in the UK. We had no idea that anything was wrong.'

With her nanny's salary of GBP300 ($4,500) a week, Ms Casalme earned almost as much in a fortnight as her father, a farmer, earned in a year. There is no telephone in the family home and Ms Casalme speaks to her mother only when a friend or relative brings a mobile phone to the house. She regularly sends letters and gifts by post and transfers money through her bank to support the family.