Being a father 'harder than being a Prime Minister' - Blair

LONDON - Tony Blair spoke yesterday about how he believed it was harder to be a father than a Prime Minister after his 16-year-old son, Euan, was arrested for being drunk and incapable.

An emotional Blair went ahead with a speech to black church leaders in Brighton after Downing St confirmed that Euan had been found by police lying on a pavement in London's Leicester Square just before 11 pm on Wednesday local time.

They were sufficiently worried about him to call an ambulance.

The disclosure threatened to embarrass Blair, coming only days after he proposed tough new measures to allow the police to take action against drunken louts.

But cabinet colleagues rallied round and the mood at Westminster was largely one of sympathy over an incident which could have happened to any family.

Blair changed his speech to the African and Caribbean Evangelical Association conference to say: "Being a Prime Minister can be a tough job, but I always think that being a parent is probably tougher. Sometimes, you don't always succeed, but to me the family is more important than anything else."

Blair made clear that his religious faith had kept him strong during family and political crises. "Faith is not an old fashioned value who's time has gone ... Faith in the end is the best expression of humility, the best expression of the fact that there is something bigger than us as individuals."

Euan had been out with friends celebrating the end of their GCSE exams.

When he was taken to Charing Cross police station, he initially gave a false name "Euan John," address and claimed he was 18 before his real identity was established by police. After about two hours at the station - some of it spent in a cell - he was taken home to be reunited with an anxious Blair at about 1 am. Blair knew Euan had been out with friends but had become increasingly worried when he failed to return home.

It is not known how he became separated from his friends. Although he had been vomiting, ambulance staff decided he did not need hospital treatment.

The news travelled fast, some newspapers were tipped off and Downing St was telephoned about the incident in the early hours.

Blair and his wife, Cherie, who is on a short holiday in Portugal, is expected to accompany Euan to the police station next week.

Although Euan was released without charge, Scotland Yard confirmed he could be issued with a caution or formal warning.

Alastair Campbell, the Downing St press secretary, said: "Euan is very sorry for the inconvenience he caused the police, the state he was in and the false statement that he made. He is in no doubt about the seriousness of this and the view his parents take of it. He will fully cooperate in any further action the police choose to take."

Campbell acknowledged the incident was the latest in a series of problems which have engulfed Blair, including his ill-fated speech to the Women's Institute, a cabinet split over the single currency, a hasty u-turn over his plan for on-the-spot fines for drunken yobs and an uncertain performance at Prime Minister's Question Time this week.

"We are going through one of those phases where our mettle is being tested. These things happen. You get through them," said Campbell.

"It could be one of those days he will be quite glad to see the end of."

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, said: "I'm sure Euan will be feeling bad about it, as his parents will. It's a family situation where a lad has a drink too much and is sick. It's about growing up isn't it?"

William Hague, the Tory leader, declined to comment but Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: "I think everybody in the country will have every sympathy with the Blair family. We all shared a great deal of happiness for them with the new baby arriving, and they are experiencing a slight domestic setback of a type which probably affects just about every home in the land."

Blair and his wife have gone to great lengths to protect the privacy of their children - Euan, Nicky, aged 14, Kathryn, 12, and baby Leo. But the Blairs, by authorising an official statement, accepted that news of Euan's arrest would have to be disclosed.

The unplanned arrival of a fourth child has inevitably made it harder for Blair to juggle the pressures on any Prime Minister with family life. There is a growing sense that Blair has lost his normally strong grip in recent weeks.

But aides dismiss speculation that he has a secret deal with Chancellor Gordon Brown to stand aside about two years after the next election.

"Tony is a family man and has managed to remain a member of the human race," said one aide. "But it is a very difficult job to walk away from."

- INDEPENDENT