| Tories up in arms against Cherie Blair's paid US lecture |
|
|
|
Cherie Blair's US tour is causing quite a storm back home with the Tories up in arms about her antics while in America. The Tories claim that Mrs. Blair is out of order as she is exploiting her husband's job to make a profit for herself.
Mrs. Blair is going to speak about her life in Downing Street in a paid lecture in Washington on Monday at just about the same time that her husband holds talks with George W Bush regarding the G8 summit. The lecture is titled, "First Lady of Downing Street," and will be delivered at the 2,500-seater Kennedy Centre. Reports say that all the tickets have been sold out. Tickets are priced between £33 ($60) and £52 ($95) each.
The shadow leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling, spared no words when he said; "The rules for ministers explicitly say they cannot make money from commercial activities in relation to their job. What we have here is a grey area because we have, not the [prime] minister himself, but his wife giving lectures to paying audiences about their life at No 10." He demanded that the existing rules be changed to fit this type of activity as well, "What is wrong to me is the Blair family making tens of thousands of pounds out of effectively exploiting Mr. Blair's job when the ministerial code says they are not allowed to do that," he said.
Mr. Grayling had asked the Committee on Standards in Public Life to examine this issue in detail. He has also written to the cabinet office minister, John Hutton, seeking a cross-party review.
Commenting on the allegations, a Downing Street spokesman said, "Mrs. Blair's engagement has been arranged for some time. It is a private engagement and she is traveling independently of the prime minister's party. If she and the prime minister are in Washington at the same time it is a coincidence."
Posted
on : Fri, 03 Jun 2005 17:55 GMT | General News
By : Anne Philips
|
| |
| Related |
|
|
|
