The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, was forced to defend the behaviour of the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, yesterday, as the row over the dismissal of Mr Cook's diary secretary rumbled on in the Commons.
The Tory leader, Mr William Hague, criticised Mr Cook's treatment of his former diary secretary, Ms Anne Bullen, as "certainly secretive and clearly open to misinterpretation," following a statement this week that he had considered giving the post to his lover, Ms Gaynor Regan, last year. Mr Cook said he and Ms Regan, who is his constituency secretary, eventually decided not to pursue the idea.
In a bitter exchange during Question Time in the Commons, Mr Hague asked Mr Blair if he agreed that it was "unacceptable" for a minister to remove a civil servant and replace her with a personal friend at public expense. Mr Blair replied that of course it was wrong, but pointed out that Mr Hague had not grasped the true facts of the issue.
Pursuing his point, Mr Hague called on Mr Cook to provide a full statement "to clear the matter up." Mr Blair firmly rejected the proposal, explaining: "The particular person, as you know, was not a career civil servant . . . when her contract came to an end she was replaced by a career civil servant.
"The very fact that you engage in that type of question shows how completely useless and pathetic the Conservative opposition is," he added.
Mr Blair also faced tough questions over the amount of government spending on official residences and the cost to the taxpayer of bringing ministers' spouses and partners on official visits abroad. Mr Blair insisted the same rules were being applied under Labour as those under the Tories. The government had spent £1 million on ministerial hospitality in the last year, compared to over £2 million in the final year of the Tory administration.