Blair slept rough in London
Prime Minister Tony Blair once slept rough on a park bench near Euston station in London, Downing Street sources have confirmed. The young Mr Blair left home in 1971 to travel to London and realise his ambitions as a rock star, the Sunday Mirror reports.
Mrs Blair recounted the anecdote to guests at a Downing Street reception for the homeless charity Centrepoint earlier this week.
“After he left school the prime minister came down to London. He spent a night on a park bench before he sorted out somewhere to stay,” a Number 10 spokesman confirmed on Saturday.
The revelation comes as police in the capital continue a trial weekend rounding up vagrant beggars in London’s West End, with a total of 17 arrested so far. Westminster Council defends the trial as an audit of the problem’s scale but shelter charity Crisis argues that the crackdown will “criminalise” the homeless.
A Conservative party spokesman said few homeless people would feel empathy with Tony Blair. “Rather than pretending to be all things to all people the Prime Minister should be more genuine and focus on coming up with solutions to the problem of homelessness,” he said.
