Cherie Blair blasts Claire Short overTony Tory claims

Jun 21 2009 by Kat Keogh, Sunday Mercury

CHERIE Blair has hit back at Birmingham MP Clare Short’s claim that husband Tony would ‘‘have been a Tory” if he hadn’t married her.

The former Prime Minister’s wife dismissed the allegations as “rubbish” and said her future husband had strong links with the Labour Party before they had even met.

Cherie also revealed how his Shropshire-based father had been an active Communist as a young man – before joining the Conservatives.

Watch the Clare Short interview here - http://www.sundaymercury.net/video-pics/midlands-birmingham-videos/

Ladywood MP Ms Short claimed in last week’s Sunday Mercury that Blair was “terrifyingly ill-informed” during his time as Prime Minister, before questioning his reasons for joining the Labour Party as a young man.

“I mean, he probably would have become a Tory if he hadn’t married Cherie – his father was,” she said.

“[Tony] was charming but read very little, even his decision making in Number 10, he didn’t read the documents that were put up. He had clever young things who would read everything and say there’s this or that.

“A wonderful sense of PR, but terrifyingly ill-informed and not thought through, thus Iraq and other things.”

But wife Cherie revealed Blair had joined the Labour Party before they met while she was training to be barrister in 1976.

“Oh, rubbish,” Cherie told BBC WM’s Joanne Malin. “Tony had already joined the Labour Party when he met me.”