PM admits smacking his eldest children

Published on Wednesday 11 January 2006 01:15

TONY Blair confirmed yesterday that he had sometimes dealt with his children's anti-social behaviour by smacking them.

In a debate on BBC2's Newsnight, the Prime Minister suggested that while he had physically punished his three elder children, he had refrained from smacking Leo, who is five years old.

The Blairs' other children are Euan, 22, Nicky, 20, and Kathryn, 17. Euan, in particular, has flirted with the sort of disruptive behaviour his father deplores: in 2000, he was arrested in central London for being drunk and incapable.

During the Newsnight debate, presenter Kirsty Wark asked Mr Blair: "Do you smack your kids?"

When he failed to reply immediately, Ms Wark asked him: "Did it cause a problem?"

Mr Blair replied: "No. Actually, funnily enough, I'm probably different with my youngest than I was with my older ones."

The Scottish Executive attempted to ban the smacking of children under three in 2002 but Jim Wallace, the then justice minister, was forced to drop the plan.

Mr Blair, however, has always resisted calls for a similar ban in England and Wales.

Last night, he insisted that no new law was necessary to regulate the way parents disciplined their children. "I think everybody knows the difference between smacking a kid and abusing a child," he said.

He insisted that his Respect measures to crack down on anti-social behaviour were aimed at actions too serious to be dealt with in the family. "When you get these really, really difficult families, it's moved a bit beyond [smacking]," he said.

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman and leadership contender, confirmed last night that he, too, had sometimes physically reprimanded his two children.

The punishment amounted to "a tap on the arm now and again", Mr Oaten said.