Blairs pay for holiday flights

The Blairs on holiday last year

Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family are to spend part of their summer break in Mexico, Downing Street has confirmed.

Mr Blair and his wife Cherie will have an official tour of Brazil, Jamaica and Mexico at the end of July, staying on at their last stop for an extra week for a private holiday at the start of August.

Mr Blair has ditched the pasta to eat the pasty

Malcolm Bell
South West Tourism

Their four children - Euan, 17, Nicky, 15, Kathryn, 13, and one-year-old Leo - are expected to be accompanied by a nanny and Mrs Blair's mother Gail, and will travel separately to join them in Mexico.

A Downing Street spokesman stressed that the Blairs would pay for all the flights involved.

They will later return to Britain to spend a few days in the south west to show their commitment to the farming and tourist industries following the devastating effects of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Budget flights

Later in August they will take a short break in France, flying there to the south west of the country on budget airline easyJet.

Blair Force One

The Sun newspaper also reported that the Blairs would stay at a private ranch during their holiday in Mexico.

News of Blairs' decision to fully fund their holiday flights themselves follows criticism of their previous summer breaks and accusations that the prime minister is out of touch with ordinary people.

They have also been accused in the past of too readily accepting the hospitality of millionaires in exotic locations - a charge the domestic leg of their holiday goes some way towards meeting.

Their decision to holiday in the westcountry was welcomed by the region's tourism leaders.

Just where the Blairs will stay is now a matter of intense speculation in the south west.

Blair backs the pasty

South West Tourism's chief executive, Malcolm Bell, said the prime minister had "ditched the pasta to eat the pasty".

Mr Bell said he, like other regional tourism leaders, had been asked to give suggestions of where the Blairs could stay and he speculated it would be Devon or Cornwall.

Dartmooor is a south west holiday hotspot

"It is great news for the tourism industry - we are the number one destination for UK holidays, and it is right the number one family should come here," he added.

Candy Atherton, Cornwall's only Labour MP, said she did not know their precise destination.

"There are all sorts of possibilities," she said. "He has a number of long-standing friends in the regions."

South West National Farmers' Union spokesman Ian Johnson said Mr Blair would be "spoiled for choice" in the region.

He said the visit would be "a clear and sensible signal to give out to the people down here who need that kind of fillip".