Blairs’ hearts ‘sank’ at Bush’s win, bled for Hillary

“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.