Cherie Blair

File:Cherieblair1.jpg

Cherie Blair in full Queen's Counsel ceremonial dress.

Cherie Blair (born 23 September 1954 in Bury, England), known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is a prominent barrister. She is married to Tony Blair, the current British Prime Minister.

Life

Her father, the actor Tony Booth, left her mother when Cherie was eight years old. Cherie and her 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 attended Seafield Convent Grammar which is now part of Sacred Heart Catholic College. Cherie 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 won 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.

Booth 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.

Legal career

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 Wednesday 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 sometimes represented claimants taking cases against the UK government.

Controversies

Cherie Blair has, over several years, found herself causing controversy which damaged not only her reputation but that of her husband the Prime Minister and the Labour Party. In this way, Cherie Blair has been compared to former U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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 with 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 went public herself, tearfully reading a prepared statement blaming her "misfortune" on the pressures of running a family and being a mother. She 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 partner Carole Caplin (Caplin later miscarried).

Later in 2002 she apologised after seeming to sympathise with Palestinian suicide bombers saying, "As long as young people feel they have no hope but to blow themselves up, we're never going to make progress, are we?".

Her relationship with Peter Foster's then-partner, the so-called "style 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.

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

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

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). But only £6,690, or 8%, of the total funds raised went towards cancer research.

Blair attracted some criticism for her handling 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 jilbab, when the school uniform code only permitted students to wear the shalwar 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 her brother Shuweb Rahman was a member.

In 2006, Blair caused controversy when it was revealed that the Labour party paid £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.

A recent controversy to hit Blair was when she was granted an audience with the Pope. The Vatican convention is that females meeting the Pontiff should wear black, preferably with a black veil, or mantilla. By contrast, Blair wrongly chose to exercise the "white privilege", granted only to the wives of Catholic monarchs. Currently, these are Queen Sofia of Spain, Queen Paola of Belgium, and Grand Duchess Maria of Luxembourg. Queen Sofia exercised her privilege in a meeting with the previous Pope in 2003.

Blair is also thought to harbor contempt for the Royal Family. She pointedly refuses to curtsey when presented to the Queen, a behavior said to amuse Her Majesty in private. Blair is also said to have called Princess Diana an "airhead," and referred to Princess Anne as a "bitch."

In May 2006, Blair was involved in the signing of copies of the Hutton Report 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 to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. £400 was raised. Both she and her husband have refused to apologise.

There was a flurry of media interest in September 2006 when it was reported that Blair had been investigated by the police over an incident at a school sports day. It was claimed that she had aimed a slap at a 17 year old boy who had asked to have his picture taken with her and then gestured behind her back. On investigation it was determined that she did not in fact slap the boy and it was quickly announced that no further police action was planned.

Trivia

• Cherie Blair is a relative of the American actor John Wilkes Booth who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
• She is well known for her "unfortunate" unphotogenic appearances in UK newspapers where the photo-journalists often capture unflattering shots, focusing in particular on her smile[2], [3]. This is sometimes captured as an open-mouthed broad grimace and has led to her appearance being compared by some to a so-called "Wide Mouth Frog" or the Crazy Frog.
• In 2000, she was forced to pay a £10 fixed penalty fare after travelling on a train without a ticket.
• She commented in a recent interview for the Times magazine, "You may have noticed I like nice young men."
• In 2005, Bill Clinton urged her to stand as a Member of Parliament when her husband retires. He offered, "If she ever campaigned for office and wanted me to go ringing doorbells for her, I’d be happy to do it.".
• In 2006, Cherie Blair was the Keynote Speaker for the Graduation Ceremony of the American University in Dubai.
• She is a close friend of English photographer Mary McCartney, daughter of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.

External links

The following links were last verified 17 September 2006.

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