London, Dec 10: Prime Minister Tony Blair dismissed "Cheriegate" today as a passing media frenzy, even as more embarrassing revelations about his lawyer wife, her best friend and an Australian fraudster emerged. In his first public remarks since the affair came to light, Blair appeared unworried that convicted conman Peter foster had helped Cherie Blair buy two apartments in Bristol, in the west of England, last month.
"This is just part of what comes with the territory nowadays," Blair told the Financial Times newspaper. "This type of media frenzy will come, and it will go."
Blair spoke with the business daily before Mrs. Blair confirmed yesterday that she made a telephone call on November 22 to Foster's law firm, which is handling the Australian's fight against a deportation order.
The affair is said to be paralysing work in Downing Street at a moment when Blair should be concentrating on the Iraq crisis and the EU enlargement summit in Copenhagen that opens Thursday.
In a statement, Janes solicitors said the purpose of the call was to reassure Carole Caplin -- a close friend of Mrs. Blair and Foster's companion - that the immigration proceedings against foster "were being conducted on a regular and normal basis."
"We wish to confirm that Cherie booth QC did not intrude into our conduct of the proceedings... in our opinion she was simply seeking to provide support and assurance to her friend Carole," the firm said. Bureau Report