July 6, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 24,1423

LONDON, July 5: British Prime Minister Tony Blair found himself at the centre of a row over his children’s education on Friday after reports that he has hired tutors from a private school for his sons.

Opposition politicians accused Blair of hypocrisy and claimed that he was showing a “lack of confidence” in the ailing state education system.

The premier’s sons Euan, 18, and Nicky, 16, have been receiving private tuition from teachers at London’s prestigious Westminster School to supplement their lessons at the state school they attend, according to The Spectator magazine.

Tutors have visited the Blairs’ flat in Downing Street to give private tuition in history and other subjects, newspapers reported.

The prime minister’s official spokesman refused to confirm the story, and insisted the premier’s children were entitled to carry out their schooling free from press intrusion. Blair and his wife Cherie have proved notoriously protective in the past over their children’s privacy.

Opposition Conservative member of parliament Mark Field, whose constituency includes Westminster School, told the Independent newspaper that the couple’s decision “exposes Tony Blair’s hypocrisy in relation to education”.

The opposition Liberal Democrat party’s education spokesman Phil Willis attacked “the sheer hypocrisy of a prime minister who produces a slogan of ‘education, education, education’ (Blair’s famous pledge of his Labour government’s priorities) for the nation’s children (while) seeking private education, private education, private education for his own by the back door.”

Willis told the Daily Telegraph: “On the one hand, Mr Blair is berating teachers in schools for not producing good enough quality, and yet here is the prime minister saying, ‘I want private tuition through the back door of Downing Street to make sure my kids get the best deal.’—AFP