Full details of how Tony Blair ordered Downing Street officials to lie about his passionate commitment to Roman Catholicism throughout his ten years in No 10 emerged yesterday.
Spin-doctor Lance Price said Mr Blair told him to kill off an accurate Press report in 1998 – months after he took power – that he had spoken candidly of his Catholic faith to an Italian cleric on a holiday in Tuscany.
‘He asked me to squash a story that he had told the Archbishop of Siena, “In my heart, I feel more of a Catholic,”’ said Mr Price, an ex-Downing Street deputy Press secretary.
‘He said, “I don’t discuss my Catholicism with anybody.” In his heart he was a Roman Catholic throughout the time he was Prime Minister. He was worried it would blow up into a much bigger story, with people asking whether he would be beholden to the Vatican because as a Catholic you are supposed to believe that the Pope is infallible.’
As Prime Minister, Mr Blair, whose wife Cherie is a devout Catholic, repeatedly denied rumours that he had converted or planned to do so the moment he left office. Soon after winning the 1997 Election, Mr Blair started taking Communion regularly at the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral.
