Cherie states case for the defence

Cherie Blair moved to kill off the controversy surrounding her links to a convicted fraudster last night by issuing an emotional yet defiant statement that she had done nothing improper and would not "crawl away and hide".

Choking back tears during a hastily convened live television appearance, Mrs Blair admitted that she had made two key mistakes in the affair, in not initially giving full information about her connections to Peter Foster and in allowing him such close access to her family's affairs.

The Prime Minister's wife said she had decided to speak out to pre-empt press allegations that she had tried to influence the judge in Mr Foster's legal fight against deportation. However, she denied that she had done anything improper, or had tried to influence the case in any way.

Mrs Blair's dramatic nine-minute personal statement came hours after Tony Blair had instructed Downing Street officials to come out fighting on the affair, accusing the Daily Mail and other newspapers of waging a "deliberate campaign of character assassination" against his wife. The Prime Minister's official spokesman, later amended the charge to cover only the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

Mr Foster, the boyfriend of Carole Caplin, Mrs Blair's personal style adviser, has convictions for fraud on three different continents and is threatened with deportation to Australia.

The Mail on Sunday first revealed that he had helped negotiate the purchase of two £265,000 flats in Bristol in October. It emerged on Monday that the Prime Minister's wife telephoned Mr Foster's solicitors on 22 Novemberto reassure Ms Caplin that his fight against deportation was being handled properly.

In her first public comments on her own position since her husband became Prime Minister, Mrs Blair finally went on the offensive as she tried to end nine days of media attacks on her conduct. She said that she was "not superwoman" and had found that juggling her responsibilities as mother, QC and consort to the Prime Minister had led her to make errors of judgement.

The key new allegation, which was to be made public in the Daily Mail today, was that she had checked court lists for the name of the judge in Mr Foster's case. Government sources said last night that she did this simply to reassure Ms Caplin, who had been told that the judge had changed since the first hearing, that this was normal practice.

Realising that Downing Street's repeated attempts at damage limitation had failed, Mrs Blair decided to confront the allegation head on as she addressed a charity in Westminster.

"Tonight, it's even being suggested that because I publicly checked the available court list for the name of the judge, in some way I acted improperly. I did not," she said. "But this underlines to me just how frenzied and inaccurate these allegations have become."

Mrs Blair denied telephoning the Home Office or the immigration service to intervene in the case or to kick Mr Foster out of the country.

"My immediate instinct when faced with the questions from the Mail on Sunday 10 days ago, was to protect my family's privacy and particularly my son in his first term at university living away from home. This instinct, which I think any mother would have, and my desire not to open myself up to any and every question which the press should choose to ask me is what led to the misunderstanding in the press office and I think that they know that I did not act in any way to mislead them.

"The second mistake I made was to allow someone I barely knew, and indeed had not then met, to get involved in my family's affairs."

She said she chose her friends carefully and described Ms Caplin as a "trusted friend and support" who had been a "great help" for her to get her "act together" when her husband became Labour leader.

Turning to Mr Foster, she said: "It really didn't cross my mind that he was going to land me in the mess that I am now in." She said Ms Caplin had told her that her boyfriend was a reformed character after being in trouble in the past. She had "no idea" he had been jailed in this country and abroad until a couple of weeks ago. She had only met him once "for less than five minutes".

Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, praised Cherie Blair's honesty and courage. She called on the media to "lay off" the Prime Minister's wife and said it would take a "pretty warped human being" not to draw a line under the affair.

David Davis, the shadow Deputy Prime Minister, expressed sympathy for Mrs Blair, but said she had left key questions unanswered. Calling for an independent review, he said the questions could only be answered by someone "independent of Number 10".

* 'I have made two mistakes... I am sorry if I have embarrassed anyone... I would never want to misuse my position in any way.'

This is an edited version of Cherie Blair's statement.

I know I'm in a very special position. I'm the wife of the Prime Minister, I have an interesting job and a wonderful family, but I also know I am not Superwoman. The reality of my daily life is that I'm juggling a lot of balls in the air. Some of you must experience that. Trying to be a good wife and mother, trying to be the Prime Ministerial consort at home and abroad and being a barrister, a charity worker, and sometimes some of the balls get dropped. There just aren't enough hours in the day ....

I now realise I made two mistakes. My immediate instinct when faced with the questions from The Mail on Sunday 10 days ago was to protect my family's privacy and particularly my son in his first term at university, living away from home. This instinct, which I think any mother would have, and my desire not to open myself up to any and every question which the press should choose to ask me, is what led to the misunderstanding in the press office and I think that they know that I did not act in any way to mislead them.

The second mistake I made was to allow someone I barely knew and indeed had not then met to get involved with my family's affairs.

I have never wished to make a public statement like this. Throughout all of this I have only ever wanted to protect my family and help my friend Carole. I am sorry if I have embarrassed anyone but the people who know me well know that I would never want to harm anyone, least of all Tony or the children or the Labour Government, or misuse my position in any way at all.

Sometimes I feel I would like to crawl away and hide but I will not, I have come here tonight to present you with your well-deserved awards and that's what I'm going to do.