Energetic Blair '100 percent' fit after health scare

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Energetic Blair '100 percent' fit after health scare

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British leader Tony Blair was "100 percent recovered" Monday after needing electric shocks to regulate heart palpitations over the weekend in the first health scare of his premiership, his office said.

"This is not a long-term cardiac condition. It is relatively minor," said a Blair spokesman. "His appetite for the job is the same today as any other day."

After easing up slightly yesterday, Blair will soon resume his full schedule, the spokesman added. He will have his regular audience with the Queen on Tuesday, take questions in parliament on Wednesday and hold his monthly news conference on Thursday.

"He is fit, fine, in good spirits and 100 per cent recovered," the spokesman told reporters.

Underlying what Downing Street said were Blair's undimmed energy levels, he will even be touring on Thursday and Friday, the spokesman said.

The 50-year-old Blair, who has had the toughest year of his six-year rule with the Iraq War and its difficult aftermath, was under doctors' orders to stay quiet yesterday after five hours of treatment under sedation on Sunday.

He sent Foreign Minister Jack Straw in his place to report on a European Union meeting to parliament but was going ahead with meetings at his Downing Street office and residence.

Despite the official confidence, Blair's health blip ignited a wave of "What If?" speculation in media and political circles.

Should he become incapacitated, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott would step in while the ruling Labour Party organizes the election of a new leader.

Powerful Finance Minister Gordon Brown, long believed to be harboring leadership ambitions, would be the front-runner.

Blair wants to run for a third term in a general election expected in 2005. He may, however, now come under pressure from friends and family to reconsider or at least ease his schedule.

Spokesmen and medical experts, however, say such questions are premature as his problem was a small blip, common to many.

After feeling dizzy and suffering chest pains on Sunday, Blair was rushed to a London hospital.

Blair has no history of heart problems. He is known to be a vitamin-popping fitness enthusiast who plays tennis, uses a private gym in Downing Street.

His parents, though, were both dogged by ill-health. His mother died of cancer and his father suffered a stroke at 40.

Blair has looked stressed and drawn through much of 2003, first as he sold an unpopular war to sceptical Britons, then when critics rounded on him for his office's role in the outing of the name of scientist David Kelly, who committed suicide.

With his popularity ratings in a slump, some speculated Blair could benefit from public sympathy over his heart problem.

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