Leo delivers maiden speech aged five

by JAMES TOZER, Daily Mail

Last updated at 12:37 05 September 2005


With the Prime Minister as his father and a barrister as his mother, he was always likely to find that public speaking came naturally.

The five-year-old was said to be bursting with excitement as his parents took him to a church service near Balmoral attended by the Queen and Prince Philip.

So when the minister asked for a youngster in the audience to help him with his reading, he leapt to his feet and volunteered.

As Tony and Cherie Blair looked on proudly, Leo joined the guest preacher, the Right Reverend David Lacy, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, at the microphone and confidently read out the line: "Jesus said, 'I am the light of the world'."

His contribution thrilled the 200-strong congregation at Crathie Kirk where the Blairs attended the service after spending the night as guests of the Queen at Balmoral.

Just back from a holiday in Barbados with his parents, blondhaired Leo, smartly dressed in a

blue shirt, arrived in a separate car accompanied by a nanny.

As the congregation waited for the service to start, he excitedly told people: "The Queen is coming!"

'Totally unrehearsed'

Afterwards Ed Bushnell, session clerk at the tiny church, said: "It was all totally unrehearsed. The minister asked for some help from a youngster who could read and Leo jumped up and did it."

One member of the congregation said: "He was full of confidence and didn't seem bothered about standing in front of the whole church and being watched by the Queen.

"It was a great performance and could be a sign of things to come. I wouldn't be surprised if he followed his dad into politics."

The line read out by Leo, who is just beginning his second year at school, comes from John, chapter 8, verse 12, in which Jesus addresses the Pharisees.

It is not the first piece of precocity from the Blairs' youngest son. Aged 18 months he apparently wished Jacques Chirac 'bon anniversaire' as he handed the French President a birthday present.

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