No 10 rejects Blair heart claim

Mr Blair had treatment in 2003 and 2004 for his irregular heartbeat

Downing Street has denied ex-minister David Blunkett's claim that Tony Blair has suffered heart problems since 1988.

Mr Blunkett said the PM told him, after treatment for an irregular heartbeat in 2003, that he had suffered with heart problems "on and off" for 15 years.

That claim, in Mr Blunkett's diaries, appears at odds with No 10's statement in 2003 that Mr Blair "does not have, has never had, a heart condition".

No 10, asked if Mr Blunkett's new claims were right, replied: "No."

The prime minister's official spokesman's response was to a question about heart problems, which covers a broader range of things than the denial of a heart condition in 2003.

Mr Blair's spokesman added "We dealt with this at the time. But the simple answer is no."

Asked why it might be that Mr Blunkett, and previously Bill Clinton and the Queen had been reported as saying the prime minister had told them he had had such problems, the spokesman said: "I have said all I have to say about this subject."

Former US president Bill Clinton was quoted in the Sunday Mirror in October 2003 as saying he had been aware of the problems for "quite a few years".

Mr Blair's spokesman responded at that time by saying he was "mystified" by Mr Clinton's comments.

He went on to say about Mr Blair's heart treatment: "This has never happened before and there is no reason why this should re-occur.

This time he had had to go into hospital, which is why it became public knowledge David Blunkett, in a diary entry from October 2003

"Were the prime minister to have had anything like this before, it would have required treatment."

But an entry from Mr Blunkett's diaries - serialised in the Guardian and the Daily Mail - from October 2003 read: "Tony told me when I spoke to him on the telephone that he had had the heart problem, on and off, for 15 years.

"But this time he had had to go into hospital, which is why it became public knowledge."

In the diaries - serialised in the Guardian and the Daily Mail - Mr Blunkett also said Chancellor Gordon Brown was "very hard to negotiate with".

"Every time something is raised he becomes defensive, but you simply have to override it."

And the Sheffield MP added that John Reid - who was then the secretary of state for Northern Ireland - had an "enormous row" with Mr Brown in the Cabinet in July 2002.