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Kathryn Blair is the only daughter of the Right Honourable Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Cherie Booth QC.
Kathryn's official residence is 10 Downing Street, London with her parents and three brothers: Euan Blair, Nicky Blair and Leo Blair.
Speculations
It has been reported on a number of websites, but not in any mainstream UK sources, that in either April or May 2004, Kathryn Blair attempted to commit suicide. If this rumour is true, she has since made a full recovery. The rumour was originally attributed to Alan Johnson MP, a junior government minister at the time. However, the internet reports were characterised by contradictions or embellishments over the date when this attempt is supposed to have occured and the reasons it was not reported (some alleging the use of D-notices, even though these are now issued by an independent regulator), and by an attempt to link this alleged event to the conflict in Iraq.
An issue of the Irish Independent in November 2004 did carry the story in its initial print run, but it was removed at the request of its sister paper The Independent from later printings that day.
In September 2004, Melvyn Bragg claimed that, earlier in the year, Tony Blair had considered standing down as Prime Minister due to "pressing domestic" issues. According to the Daily Mail and other papers, this led to one cabinet member labelling Bragg an "idiot" for "[lifting] the veil on events that have been common knowledge in political circles since April, but not publicised." Some have seen this as corroberration of the suicide speculations.
If the story is true, the mainstream press has still not run the story, either out of sensitivity or, as some claim, due to official pressure or personal appeals from Blair himself.
External links
- Fringe sources:
- Public-Interest.co.uk (http://www.public-interest.co.uk/aseye/index.htm#Tony) (a site specialising in conspiracy theories): Tony Blair's daughter in suicide bid
- Indymedia UK (http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/06/293456.html): Blair's daughter Kathryn in suicide bid
- Mainstream sources:
- Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/15/nblair15.xml): Blair 'nearly quit over family'
- The Age (http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/17/1095394005096.html): Keeping Tony Blair's secret all in the family
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