Cherie airs marital woe on TV

WHEN THE history books of the Blair years come to be written it might only be a footnote. But behind the closed doors of Downing Street he is unlikely to be allowed to forget it.

After Tony Blair admitted last week he never says it with flowers, his wife Cherie took the unusual step yesterday of calling a live television programme to confirm it.

"It's absolutely true, isn't that awful?" she told Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, hosts of Channel Four's teatime chat show.

Following the PM's revelation, Richard and Judy had posed the question "Do men send flowers enough?" Mrs Blair revealed her mother had been watching the show and had persuaded her to call in to "show up her son-in-law".

She said: "I think I must have failed really because I've now got myself into a situation where he can say, if he did send me flowers, that I would be bound to be suspicious, so he's got out of it forever."

When a shocked Judy asked her "What - not even for anniversaries or children being born?" Mrs Blair had to admit the answer was no.

So don't be too surprised if you see a flower van pulling into Downing Street some time in the near future.