Costly haircuts put Cherie in a spot

Costly haircuts put Cherie in a spot

	Published : Sat, 22 Apr 2006 09:00 By : David Simms Print this Story

LONDON: The Labour Party had spent 7,700 pounds on hairstyling bills of Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie during 2005 general election campaign, the Times newspaper revealed in a report.

The party did not comment on the report or questioned its veracity, but did not find anything wrong in incurring such expenses. A party spokesperson reacted, "So what?" and added "Mrs. Blair worked fantastically hard during the election and visited more than 50 constituencies during the campaign. She is enormously popular with the party and, don't forget, we won the election."

The newspaper report mentioned that the party had included 275 pounds-a-day for nearly a month incurred in paying a hairstylist in its election expenses and filed it in the mandatory declaration made to the Electoral Commission.

Cherie Blair had been making use of the services of Andre Suard of the Michaeljohn salon in London. She is a professional lawyer and a prime minister's spokesperson said she had paid Suard herself whenever she brought him on official government trips. However, party events that occurred during a campaign were a separate matter, he added.

Some party MPs had complained that her hairstyling bill was more than what they had spent on their entire campaigns. Peter Kilfoyle said the hair care expense was more than twice the cash he had spent campaigning in his Liverpool Walton constituency. Another MP, Ian Gibson, urged her to pay back the amount to the party. He said many people had made huge efforts for the party's third successive win, but none would expect to have personal expenses met out of political funds.

Suard, has frequently travelled with Cherie Blair on official visits, both in Britain and abroad. He accompanies the prime minister's party on his official jet when Cherie Blair is part of the entourage. He was there on the recent trip to Australia and Indonesia. The prime minister's spokesperson said whenever the stylist is part of such official trips, Cherie Blair foots the bill personally.