George W Bush’s win over Al Gore in the 2000 US presidential polls “sank” the hearts of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, who were concerned over the Republican's grasp of foreign affairs.

“I first met George Bush at Camp David ... shortly after he took over as President. From our visits to Washington we had got to know Al Gore, the Democratic candidate, and his wife Tipper, reasonably well, so I think it’s fair to say that our hearts sank when the result was finally ratified,” Cherie said.

“We had watched George W on television and felt that he didn’t seem comfortable with foreign affairs, yet Tony was determined that they should have a good relationship,” she said in her book Speaking for Myself, the excerpts of which were published in The Times on Wednesday.

However, Cherie, whose husband was later regarded by some as Bush’s “poodle” over Iraq and Afghan wars, discovered the US President as a “very funny, charming man with a quirky sense of humour” during the first interaction between the two families.

The wife of ex-British Prime Minister also feels former US President Bill Clinton was “bloody stupid” to go along with White House intern Monika Lewinski. “In January 1998, the Lewinsky scandal finally broke and my heart bled for Hillary, coming on top, as it did, of the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit.”