Blair's bill for make-up tops £1,800

DOWNING Street gave a rare insight into the Prime Minister's remarkable ability to maintain a healthy glow into his fifties last night, with the revelation that he spends some £300 of taxpayers' money every year on making himself look nice for our television screens.

Tony Blair has spent more than 1,800 of public money on make-up and make-up artists to prepare him for media appearances in the past six years.

Figures slipped into the public domain last week reveal that, between 1999 and 2005, Downing Street paid 1,050.22 for cosmetics for the Prime Minister's media appearances.

And in the past two years, No 10 shelled out a further 791.20 on make-up artists.

The figures emerged in a parliamentary written answer on Thursday - the final day before MPs and peers broke for the summer as London was gripped by the latest attempted terror attacks.

The details were revealed by the government whip Lord Bassam of Brighton, in response to a question tabled by the Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield.