Cherie, her hairdo and the election

What do you think is the main reason for Tony Blair’s Labour party to win a historic third term last May?

The answer is apparently the hairstyle of Mr Blair’s wife Cherie. It seems she spent British Pound 7,700 from April 6 to May 6 to look her best so that her husband can win the election.

So confident was Mrs Blair that the Labour victory was all down to her hair that she had actually billed the party for the services of her hair stylist. The party declared that as election expense.

Naturally not everyone in the party is happy over it – not when the party is drowning under a bludgeoning debt so much so that it has to resort to secret loans to stay afloat. It may even end up selling its headquarters to repay a 14 million pound loan.

It seems the party spent about 17.9 million pounds on its 2005 general election campaign, of which now we know 7,700 went to Cherie’s hairstylist.

One Labour MP even complained that the money given to keep Cherie’s hair in vogue was almost double to what he was allocated to win his seat.

But party officials are adamant that the money for Cherie’s hair was well-spent.

A party spokesperson said:

“Mrs Blair worked fantastically hard during the election and visited more than 50 constituencies during the campaign and we won the election.”

But I would have thought these visits were part of her responsibility and duty as the wife of the Labour leader. Also I am quite sure that voters were more interested in the policies of the party rather than how Cherie’s hair looked in deciding their vote.

And above all, it really looks petty when the PM’s wife resorts to claim for her hair styles from the party. What’s next? Will she even ask the party for appearance fee?