Tony Blair ‘used children’s cash to set up office’

TONY Blair received £400,000 from a fund for disadvantaged children to set up an office in a five-star hotel.

Tony Blair received 400 000 from a fund for disadvantaged children Tony Blair received £400,000 from a fund for disadvantaged children

Prime Minister David Cameron revealed the money came from the Department for International Development (DfID) and is meant to fund humanitarian work in developing countries.

But it was spent on rooms at the exclusive American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, where Mr Blair spends one week a month in his role as peace envoy to the Middle East. The 19th century hotel near the old city of Jerusalem is one of the most exclusive in Israel. A suite costs £550 a night.

The DfID should not be giving him money

David Amess

The cash was paid in 2007 as Britain’s contribution to Mr Blair’s work representing the EU, America, Russia and the United Nations.

David Amess, Tory MP for Southend West, said: “The DfID should not be giving him money. It should be spent on the world’s poor.”

Mr Blair’s office was unavailable for comment.

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