Blairs take patriotic holiday at home

Tony Blair and his family, who are more accustomed to spending their summers in Italy, will be sampling the wetter pleasures of Cumbria today when they begin a patriotic holiday in the Lake District.

Downing Street was coy about his precise destination, but the Prime Minister is expected to pose for photographs during his long-weekend break in an effort to revive tourism in the area, which was devastated by the foot-and-mouth outbreaks last year.

The visit will also help him counter criticism that he prefers to take his holidays abroad.

Speculation is rife that Mr Blair will meet local farmers and tourism officials and call in at a cattle sale. The Prime Minister's office would only state that the Blairs would be visiting an area which was "more north than south" of the country, before flying to France for their main holiday.

Cumbria's tourism industry lost £400m after its fells were placed out of bounds to walkers because of foot-and-mouth, which persisted longer there than anywhere else in the UK. Last year, Mr Blair spent part of his summer break in the West Country, another area badly hit by the epidemic.

Tourism and farmers' leaders welcomed the Prime Minister's visit, but called on him to do more to help them.

Hotelier Charles Garsight said: "Mr Blair will find that problems faced by the tourism industry are magnified in an area like this. It might concentrate his mind as to how important the industry is."