No10 bid to quell Blair fears

Tony Blair today hurried to counter doubts over his future after the heart problem which put him in hospital.

Downing Street confirmed he had been given electric shock therapy to control an irregular heartbeat.

But it denied reports that the Prime Minister had been under general anaesthetic and had undergone an operation.

Downing Street made clear Mr Blair had been "heavily sedated" for 20 minutes - enough to knock him out - but that he had not been subjected to a general anaesthetic, under which patients cannot normally breathe unaided.

The treatment given to the Prime Minister was said not to be an operation in the normal understanding of the term involving invasive surgery.

Downing Street also confirmed that the Queen, Cabinet Secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott had been informed about Mr Blair's treatment, as dictated by protocol.

Health Secretary John Reid said: "The Prime Minister is fine, he is fit. I understand people's concerns, but there is no reason for anxiety. There is no reason at all why he can't continue just as he has done before as Prime Minister."

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: "My thoughts go out to the Prime Minister and his family. I wish him the very best and a speedy recovery."

The Prime Minister's spokesman declared he was now "fit, fine, in good spirits and 100 per cent recovered".

No10 sought to back that up by releasing details of a crammed programme for the week ahead.

Mr Blair will attend his regular audience with the Queen tomorrow and will face Mr Duncan Smith for their regular Question Time clash on Wednesday, following up with a speech in London that afternoon. On Thursday he will chair Cabinet, followed by his monthly press conference in Downing Street. He will then head off on a regional tour.

Despite all the activity there was no hiding the fact that Mr Blair, for the first time in his career, was under a health shadow. And ministers and MPs were questioning, in a way they have not before, his stated resolve to soldier on, if re-elected, for a record third term.

On that front, his spokesman maintained: "His appetite for the job is the same as it was last week." Downing

Street revealed that Mr Blair was "feeling under the weather" when he woke yesterday morning at Chequers.

He saw a doctor there at

9.30 who sent him to nearby Stoke Mandeville hospital. From there he was referred to the cardiac care unit at Hammersmith Hospital.

The Downing Street spokesman confirmed that shock treatment was given, rather than the chemical injection which is the other usual treatment for Mr Blair's condition, known as supra

ventricular tachycardia. No 10 confirmed that Mr Blair had pulled out of a planned Commons statement this afternoon on last week's Euro summit, handing over the task to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. But the spokesman said the

Prime Minister had chaired today's 9am strategy meeting.

Mr Blair has faced an extraordinarily punishing year. It began with the build-up to the war in Iraq, with the highspeed diplomatic shuttle attempt to bring President Bush and the UN into line over military action.

After that attempt failed it was followed by the war itself, Cabinet resignations, confrontation with a restive Labour Party then the Hutton Inquiry into the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

Today brought reassurance, however, for Mr Blair, wife Cherie and their family, from expert medical voices.

Consultant cardiologist Duncan Dymond told the BBC's Today programme that the condition was "very frightening when it happens" but it was "high in nuisance value, low in gravity".

He added: "There is no real reason for him to stop playing tennis - or to stop being Prime Minister."