Blair's dead ringer

Tony and Tom: Lookalike work is lucrative business

By Mark Davies BBC News Online political reporter

Tom Skehan may not know what it's like to run the country - but every now and then he gets a taste of what it is to be Tony Blair.

The 38-year-old is a professional Tony Blair lookalike - and while he can't claim influence on the world stage, he knows what it's like to be in the spotlight.

A certain resemblance?

"People's responses tend to mirror Mr Blair's popularity," says Mr Skehan. "And I do get more stick today than I used to."

It all began back in the mid-1990s when Mr Blair became leader of the opposition.

"One or two people said to me, 'you look a bit like this guy, the leader of the opposition'," says Tom.

"I was also doing some stand-up comedy at the time and at one event in 1997 I was getting heckled by someone saying 'get off Blair' or words to that effect.

"Someone said I should get in touch with a lookalike agency - I'd never heard of such a thing before that."

Up and down

Tom's first job was to open an extension to a supermarket.

"I got harassed by an old man with a stick who thought it really was Tony Blair," he says. "He had to be restrained by security - he was shouting 'get out of my store'."

The real Blair as a 39-year-old

And if the resemblance is less striking than it was these days, it's not hard to see why Mr Skehan was signed up back then.

"When Mr Blair became popular that's when it really kicked off for me," he says. "It's been up and down since then."

But if the age gap between the two men is starting to show, it's not affecting Birmingham-based Tom's workload.

"During the election last year I had to move to London because I was getting two or three jobs a day," he says.

Mingling

A standard job - which can pay around £400 for an hour's work - is at a corporate event, making a speech as the prime minister "commenting on the news of the day, but with a comic angle".

He's got the Blair wave

Tom adds: "The rest of the time is spent mixing and mingling with people, giving people a chance to speak to the prime minister.

"I've got the voice - it's quite hard, with lots of stops and starts. There are lots of actions too, distinctive mannerisms."

On a job in Prague, Mr Skehan was given an interpreter - who also copied the Blair-style hand movements.

And the workload means that the UK's teaching profession has suffered.

Crisis

"I used to be a full time teacher," says Tom. "But now the Blair thing has kicked in I do supply teaching two or three days a week.

Is the resemblance fading?

"So Blair has added to his own teacher recruitment crisis."

As for political allegiances, Mr Blair's lookalike is - with reservations - a fan of the prime minister.

"I am a supporter personally," he says.

"But like some supporters I don't think he's doing enough. I am a Labour man but I want him to do more on health, education - maybe a bit more on the environment."