Cherie bags online bargain

You might be surprised to learn who is surfing the electronic pages of eBay, the Internet auction site, in search of bargains.

Cleaner Jennie Loveday certainly was when she posted her daughter's Winnie the Pooh alarm clock for sale.

She received a bid for 99p, the reserve price she had placed on the item, and was astonished when the bidder's name came up on her screen as Cherie Booth.

'I couldn't believe it,' said Mrs Loveday, 35. 'I e-mailed straight back and asked her if she was Tony Blair's wife.

'To my amazement, she replied and said "Yes Jennie, I am Cherie Blair and the clock is for Leo". She went on to ask me for help in using the site, because she has only just started buying things on it.'

The deal was done at 99p - for an item which would have cost about £20 in the shops. Mrs Blair is said to earn in the region of £250,000 a year as a barrister.

Mrs Loveday was even more astonished when Mrs Blair suggested she hand deliver the clock to 10 Downing Street. She declined the offer.

When the item was successfully delivered to Mrs Blair's London legal chambers in Gray's Inn Road, she sent a reply saying: 'All arrived safely today and Leo's gone off to bed very excited about the loud alarm!'

The novelty clock had belonged to Mrs Loveday's ten-year- old daughter Sophie, who acquired it during a family holiday at Pontin's by collecting tokens.

Now, it would seem, it sits by the bed of the Prime Minister's fouryearold son in 10 Downing Street.

Mrs Loveday, from Islington, North London, said last night: 'I was surprised that a lady of her calibre would be doing such a thing, but on the other hand I thought it was quite flattering that she had bought my clock. I can't believe it went to one of the UK's highest-paid women - I suppose she's just a mum like the rest of us and likes to save money.'

It later emerged that this was Mrs Blair's third purchase on the site. Under the eBay identity 'cherie_boo', she also bought two Disney videos - Aladdin and Dumbo - at £1.99 each.

But after her experiences with Peter Foster, former boyfriend of her assistant Carole Caplin, it might have surprised some that the Prime Minister's wife was not more cautious in her use of electronic correspondence.

It was her e-mail exchanges with Foster, revealed by the Daily Mail, that became the damning proof the convicted fraudster had helped her negotiate a discount on two flats she was buying in Bristol, after which she described him as 'a star'.

She is well-known for her love of a bargain.

Earlier this year she contacted the headquarters of Ford saying she was looking for a car for her son Euan within a budget of £3,500 - barely half the cost of the company's cheapest model.

Two months ago, she enjoyed a break at Bermuda's palatial Government House which reportedly cost the family only £27 a night per room.

And many clothes designers have privately admitted giving Mrs Blair hefty reductions, sometimes amounting to thousands of pounds.

Last night, Downing Street declined to comment on Mrs Blair's latest bargain.