Mrs Blair: It's a balancing act

2005-06-07 12:04

Washington - The wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, accused at home of cashing in on her husband's position, blamed her predicament in part on sexism and the difficulties of balancing her professional life with being married to the prime minister.

Cherie Blair, a prominent human rights lawyer who also uses her maiden name, Booth, professionally, was in Washington on Monday for a long-planned appearance in the Nation's Capital Distinguished Speakers Series of the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts.

She spoke as her husband was flying in to Washington for a meeting on Tuesday with President George W Bush.

The juxtaposition of the prime minister's visit with his wife's speaking appearance - and its expected payday for her of tens of thousands of dollars - has stirred up critics in Britain who accuse her of exploiting her position to make money.

British press reports have put her fee for the 90-minute chat with American television anchor Paula Zahn as high as $54 000.

Asked about the uproar at home, Cherie Blair said: "It has crossed my mind that of all the 365 days in the year that Tony could have come, this was not my favourite." She reminded Zahn that her appearance had been scheduled for a long time.

The British press has been critical.

"The chance to make a lot of money in very little time has, once again, persuaded the Prime Minister's wife to demean herself and her husband's role," Patience Wheatcroft wrote in The Times.

Cherie Blair said one explanation for the negative reaction she has received might be that except for her predecessor, Norma Major, previous spouses of prime ministers had been of a generation in which fewer women worked outside the home.

"It's a terrible sort of tightrope one is walking all the time - professional life and the wife of the prime minister," she said.

"Because each of the women were different, they had to do it their way," she said. "There are no rules for what to do."

Cherie Blair said there is a hint of sexism in the British public's reaction to her compared with their response to Dennis Thatcher, Britain's only male prime ministerial spouse.

"Dennis Thatcher also had a number of outside interests. No one found anything wrong with that," she said.

The prime minister's wife has made public appearances abroad before, including in the United States last year to promote her book, "The Goldfish Bowl," her metaphor for 10 Downing Street, the residence of the British prime minister.

Opposition Conservative Party member Chris Grayling said the money earned from Cherie Blair's Washington speech should be donated to charity, even though she officially has broken no rules.

The prime minister's office has previously rejected claims that Blair's wife is in breach of the spirit of rules that prevent ministers from making private profit from their public careers. The ministerial code of conduct does not cover spouses.

- AP