Blair's loan from Irvine

Tony Blair's personal finances came under the spotlight today when it was claimed he received a substantial loan from former Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine.

The loan, understood to be several thousand pounds, helped Mr Blair and his wife Cherie buy their constituency home in Sedgefield just before the 1983 general election.

Downing Street today refused to comment on the claim but a senior source pointed out that the loan had been repaid in full.

The Blairs bought Myrobella for ?30,000 soon after the future Prime Minister won the North-East seat in a 1983 by-election. It is now valued at about ?150,000.

Lord Irvine has frequently been described as the matchmaker for Mr Blair and Cherie Booth as they first met when they were pupil barristers in his chambers.

The loan claim comes in a new edition of the book Great Parliamentary Scandals, by former Tory MP Matthew Parris and journalist Kevin Maguire.

They say that when it was made Lord Irvine was the high-powered-head of chambers at 11 King's Bench Walk, while the Blairs - struggling to cope with the cost of young children and a home in London - needed help to buy a new base in Sedgefield.

He helped them buy "a pleasant detached Victorian house standing a little apart from the neighbouring Trimdon colliery," the book says.

However the loan was not recorded in the MPs' register of interests for the early Eighties, the Evening Standard has found.

Mr Blair's earliest entry, in 1985, simply records his job as a barrister. Later entries refer to his sponsorship by the Transport and General Workers' Union.

Parliamentary rules at the time meant no MP was under an obligation to declare personal loans from friends, so there is no suggestion that either Mr Blair or Lord Irvine did anything improper.

But the revelation may raise eyebrows in the light of the infamous home loan that led to Peter Mandelson's Cabinet resignation.

He was forced to quit as Trade and Industry Secretary after it was revealed he had received a ?373,000 loan from fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson.