Cherie Blair

Cherie Blair
Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 2 May 1997 – 27 June 2007
Preceded by	Norma Major
Succeeded by	Sarah Brown
Personal details
Born	(1954-09-23) September 23, 1954 Bury, Lancashire, UK
Spouse	Tony Blair
Profession	Barrister

Cherie Blair (born 23 September 1954), known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is an English barrister. She is married to Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister.

Early life

Born in Bury, Lancashire, England, her father, the actor Tony Booth, left her mother when Cherie Booth was eight years old. Booth and her younger sister, Lyndsey, were then raised by their mother Gale and their paternal grandmother Vera Booth, a devout Roman Catholic. Cherie and her sister both attended Catholic schools in Crosby in Merseyside. Cherie Booth attended Seafield Convent Grammar which is now part of Sacred Heart Catholic College, where she achieved 4 Grade A GCE A Level passes. Booth has six half sisters, including the journalist Lauren Booth.

She studied law at the London School of Economics and graduated with a First Class degree. She later came at the top of her year in the bar exams, while teaching law at the University of Westminster. In 1976, while she was studying to become a barrister, she met Tony Blair. She obtained a pupillage in the chambers of Derry Irvine ahead of him, although he was also taken on. Married on 29 March 1980, they have four children: Euan, Nicky, Kathryn and Leo.

Blair unsuccessfully contested the seat of North Thanet in Kent at the 1983 UK general election, losing to Roger Gale, while her husband was selected at the last minute for a safe seat in Sedgefield in County Durham in the same election. She was considering standing in 1987, but a cycling accident in which she broke both her arms ended her chances.

File:Cherieblair1.jpg

Cherie Booth in full Queen's Counsel ceremonial dress.

Legal career

A member of Lincoln's Inn, she became a barrister in 1976 and Queen's Counsel in 1995. In 1999, she was appointed a Recorder (a permanent part-time judge) in the County Court and Crown Court. She was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 1999-2006, and on 26 July 2006 was awarded the honorary title of Emeritus Chancellor. She is also Governor of the London School of Economics and the Open University. She is a founding member of Matrix Chambers in London from which she continues to practise as a barrister. Matrix was formed in 2000 specialising in human rights law, though members also practise in a range of areas of UK public and private law, the Law of the European Union and European Convention on Human Rights, and public international law.

She specializes in employment, discrimination and public law and in this capacity has occasionally represented claimants taking cases against the UK government.

Cherie Blair has appeared in a number of leading cases. A notable example before the European Court of Justice was concerned with discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. See ECJ Case C-249/96, Lisa Jacqueline Grant vs. South-West Trains Ltd. [1] In November 2007, she expressed interested to become a senior judge.

Controversies

Within months of her husband taking office, Cherie Blair unintentionally brought herself under media attack, with the disappearance of Humphrey, the Downing Street Cat and "Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office". It was alleged in the media that Mrs Blair had ordered he be 'dispatched to meet his maker', causing a media storm and questions to be raised in the House of Commons as to the then Prime Minister's wife's involvement. The No.10 Press Office hastily scheduled a photo-call at a 'secret' location outside London where Humphrey was now residing, having retired with the Conservative government. Even though she was found publicly not to have been involved, it did show Blair in a bad light, and may have contributed to the lack of public support that she received.

In 2002, Blair hit the newspaper headlines in the scandal referred to as "Cheriegate" because of her involvement with Peter Foster, a convicted Australian conman, who assisted her in the purchase of two flats in Bristol. Blair tried to distance herself from Foster and briefed the press office at Number 10 to go public with a statement claiming that Foster was not involved with the deal. She was caught out when Foster provided evidence that she had lied. She then made a public apology, tearfully reading a prepared statement blaming her "misfortune" on the pressures of running a family and being a mother. She again tried to distance herself from Foster, but it was later revealed that she and Tony Blair had agreed to be godparents to the yet-to-be born child of Foster and his girlfriend Carole Caplin (Caplin later miscarried).

Her relationship with Peter Foster's then-girlfriend, the so-called lifestyle guru and former model Carole Caplin, has given rise to headlines in some newspapers. Caplin is credited with introducing Blair to various New Age symbols and beliefs, including "magic pendants" known as "BioElectric Shields". The most controversial of Blair's New Age practices occurred when on holiday in Mexico. She and her husband, wearing only bathing costumes, took part in a rebirthing procedure that involved smearing mud and fruit over each others' bodies while sitting in a steam bath. It is claimed her fourth pregnancy at 45 came after she submitted to New Age sexual techniques.

Later in 2002, she apologised after saying, in reference to the Palestinian suicide bombers, "As long as young people feel they have no hope but to blow themselves up, we're never going to make progress, are we?", within hours of a blast in Jerusalem that killed at least 19 people.

In 2003, after being invited to a Melbourne shopping centre and told to take a few items for free, she took 68 items. She subsequently paid £2,000 for the goods.

In 2005, while her husband was visiting President George Bush officially, she gave a private speech in Washington's Kennedy Center where she was paid £30,000 for her appearance. She was criticised for using government resources, Britain's ambassador and her husband's transport as a means to run private business.

Also in 2005, during a charity speaking tour of Australia, she was paid a £102,000 fee for after-dinner speaking, although the £82-a-head dinner raised £81,270, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV). £6,690, or 8%, of the total funds raised went towards cancer research.

Blair acted the case of Shabina Begum, a student at the mainly-Muslim Denbigh High School in Luton, who was refused permission to wear full head-to-toe jilbāb, when the school uniform code only permitted students to wear the salwar kameez. For her client, Blair claimed that it was about prejudice; however, she was criticised for her involvement in the case when Begum was being supported by the controversial Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, of which the girl's brother Shuweb Rahman was a member. This criticism ignores the cab rank rule under which any English barrister is in general required to act for any client, if asked to do so.

Concern was highlighted by The Times in 2005, when Blair agreed to defend a UK couple, the Orams, who had been accused of illegally building a villa in the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The original owner of the house was forced to flee when Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974. In effect, the house is now stolen property and some critics have stated that her work for the Orams goes against her faith i.e. 'Thou Shalt Not Steal'.] President Tassos Papadopoulos of Cyprus referred to Blair's decision to represent the Orams as "a provocative action".

In 2006, the Labour Party paid a £7,700 bill for her personal hair stylist, Andre Suard, during the 2005 General Election campaign, a sum of £275 per day for the month leading up to the election. This angered some in the party, including former minister Peter Kilfoyle, who claimed the bill was twice what he had spent on his election campaign in the Liverpool Walton seat.

In 2006, Blair was granted an audience with the Pope; Blair drew controversy by wearing white, instead of the traditional black.

In the 2006 film The Queen Blair was portrayed (by actress Helen McCrory) as giving an unconvincing curtsey when presented to the Queen. However, this behaviour is shown to secretly amuse the Queen. In addition, Blair is portrayed referring to Princess Diana as an "airhead," and Princess Anne as a "bitch."

In May 2006, Cherie Blair signed a copy of the Hutton Report which was later auctioned to raise funds for the Labour Party. The Hutton Report was a controversial report by Lord Hutton into the death of Dr David Kelly, and whether the government had lied over the claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

In September 2006, it was reported that Blair had been investigated by the police over an incident at the UK School Games where she, it was claimed, slapped a 17 year old boy, Miles Gandolfi of Chelsfield, Kent, who had asked to have his picture taken with her and then gestured "bunny ears" behind her back. On police investigation it was determined that she did not hit the boy and it was quickly announced that no further police action was planned.

On 21 January 2007, another controversy arose, when it was alleged that she used her position to acquire thousands of pounds' worth of cut-price designer clothes.

As Tony Blair left Downing Street for the last time as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007 Cherie told the gathered media present "I don't think we'll miss you". (The Press were reputed to have retorted "We won't miss you either!") Although she was referring to the relentless paparazzi, days later she was the subject of a one-hour-long ITV special on her life, filmed with her full approval and co-operation.

Portrayals

Cherie Blair features as a character in Chris Bush and Ian McCluskey's highly acclaimed production TONY! The Blair Musical, originally performed at York Theatre Royal and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007. In it, she is portrayed in a sympathetic light, and possibly as a more fragile character than her real life persona. She was portrayed by Elizabeth Berrington in the 2003 television play The Deal and by Helen McCrory in its 2006 follow-up The Queen.

Robert Harris's fictional thriller, The Ghost, features a pivotal character, Ruth Lang, inspired by Blair.

Awards and recognition

Cherie Blair has been awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill medal in recognition of her high ideals and courageous actions.

Trivia

John Wilkes Booth, the infamous professional stage actor who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, is a distant relative of Cherie Blair.

External links

The following links were last verified 14 December 2006.

• Matrix Chambers — Cherie Booth, QC
• First Lady of Downing Street speech