Blair caught up in private tutor row

Tony Blair was at the centre of a new row over his children's education last night after he was revealed to have hired private tutors from a public school to coach his sons.

The Prime Minister was condemned by opposition MPs and teachers' unions over his decision to pay for help for Euan 18, and Nicky, 16, from Westminster School, where fees range from £12,267 a year for day pupils to £17,712 for boarders.

Teachers from the school, described in the Good Schools Guide as the "famous designer-label central London boys' school", have visited the Blairs' flat in Downing Street to give private tuition in A-level history and other subjects. The tuition is intended to supplement teaching at the elite London Oratory, a selective Catholic state school in Fulham, south-west London that the boys attend.

Downing Street defended the Blairs' right to educate their children as they chose without public scrutiny, but said it did not intend to take The Spectator, which first reported the story yesterday, to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Downing Street "had no intention" of "inflating this into some great story" by going to the PCC. "The Blairs' children are entitled to carry out their schooling free from intrusion and any other issues relating to their education," he said.

The Conservative MP Mark Field, whose constituency includes Westminster School, said the decision "exposes Tony Blair's hypocrisy in relation to education".

The Liberal Democrat education spokesman, Phil Willis, said: "First of all there is the sheer hypocrisy of a Prime Minister who produces a slogan of 'education, education, education' for the nation's children seeking private education, private education, private education for his own by the back door."

Mr Willis, who said the Prime Minister's decision was "a disgrace", said Mr Blair must have been "red with embarrassment" when Robin Cook, the Leader of the House, issued a rebuke to Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative party leader, for sending his children to Eton.