No10 defend Cherie comments

Last updated at 11:57 31 October 2004


Cherie Blair's criticisms of US policy on gay rights and the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were not political, Downing Street insisted today.

The Prime Minister's wife has come under attack for a speech to American students in which she backed court decisions against President George Bush.

With less than a week to go until the country chooses a new president, she was accused of defying a convention that UK political figures remain unpartisan on foreign trips.

Tory chairman Liam Fox said that she had "put herself in a potentially embarrassing situation.

"There are times when a prudent silence is wise," he added.

But Number 10 said that Mrs Blair had been speaking as a lawyer not as the wife of the British Prime Minister.

A spokesman confirmed that she had made the remarks but added: "These were in no way political opinions.

"She is a high-profile international human rights lawyer and she was expressing a view about the use of the Supreme Court in the American justice system and used these as examples."

In the behind-closed-doors address to students at Harvard University in Boston, a copy of which was leaked to the Mail on Sunday, Mrs Blair backed the Supreme Court's decision to give legal protection to two Britons held at the Cuba camp.

She described the move, which was opposed by President Bush, as "profoundly important" and a "significant victory for human rights and the international rule of law".

Mrs Blair also lauded as "a model of judicial reasoning", the court's decision to scrap a Texan law - once backed by Mr Bush as governor of the state - banning gay sex in the state, the paper said.

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