Second-hand Cherie nets £15 high-heels

Pink, strappy and with a teetering four-inch heel, they were made for her.

So with all the bargaining power of a £250,000-a-year barrister, Cherie Blair made sure she got them.

The Prime Minister's wife outbid five rivals to buy a pair of size six secondhand sandals on the auction website eBay. She paid £15.

Mrs Blair, who paid 99p for a Winnie the Pooh alarm clock a few days earlier, is clearly getting the hang of buying on the Web. The clock was a gift for her youngest son Leo. Along with two Disney videos at £1.99 each, she seemed to be shopping with children in mind.

But on Sunday night she seemed to be in a more self-indulgent mood. Or perhaps she was simply shopping to treat a friend.

The sandals she had to have bore an Aurora label and were described as having 'never been worn'. It is not known how much they would sell for as new. The unidentified seller added: 'They have a four-inch heel and look very pretty on . . . great for summer, weddings or evenings out.'

Mrs Blair put in three separate bids seconds apart at 7.41pm on Sunday.

The timing indicates that she had barely stepped back into 10 Downing Street after flying home from France where she attended the D-Day commemorations in Normandy.

Mrs Blair was revealed as an eBay fan last weekend, when it was reported that she had bought the children's alarm clock from 35-year-old cleaner Jennie Loveday.

Since the publicity over those purchases, Mrs Blair has changed her eBay user name.

However the old and new names can be traced together, showing it is the Prime Minister's wife behind the shopping spree. eBay is one of the most popular sites on the Internet.

Items sold online range from socks and CDs to a machine that was used to dig out the Channel Tunnel.