Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair will stay at his Downing Street office and residence today after treatment for an irregular heartbeat yesterday and U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will take his place in a parliamentary debate. Blair, 50, who was advised by doctors to rest for 24 hours after ``successful'' cardiac treatment, will hold meetings in Downing Street through the day, his office said late Sunday. ``The hospital says this is a relatively common condition and is easily treated,'' Blair's office said in a statement. ``There is no reason why this should re-occur.'' Blair, U.K. leader since 1997, is facing his greatest political challenges this year with the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and accusations that he overstated the case for war. His popularity has plummeted, while dissenters in his party and opposition leaders have called for his resignation. Support for the Labour Party was at 34 percent, tied with the opposition Conservatives, a poll by YouGov Ltd. showed yesterday.
Blair was kept in for tests for between four and five hours, his office said, adding that he was feeling ``fine.'' The prime minister is a regular tennis player, and exercises regularly using a treadmill and a rowing machine installed in the apartment above his office at No. 10 Downing Street, which like the White House in Washington, is also the leader's official residence in the capital.
`Presidential'
Fitness has helped him exert a control over the machinery of British government that people including former cabinet minister Mo Mowlam have described as ``presidential,'' suggesting Blair has centralised decision-making power in his office. Blair backed the Iraqi war and sent 45,000 soldiers to Iraq, where 52 of them have since died. Before the war started in March, 1 million people marched on the streets of London to oppose Blair's policy, and two members of his cabinet, Robin Cook and Clare Short, quit in protest. Acting as the closest U.S. ally over the war, Blair has flown more than 63,000 miles this year on trips to nations including the U.S., Russia, Iraq, Japan, China and South Korea. It was during one such flight, from Washington to Tokyo in July that the death of government weapons scientist David Kelly was announced.
Kelly's Death
Kelly slashed his wrist after being named by the government as the likely source of a BBC report in May that ministers overstated the evidence of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons. Iain Duncan Smith, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, earlier this month said Blair is ``responsible'' for Kelly's death and should resign. ``I very much hope he makes a swift recovery and I send him and his family all best wishes at this difficult time,'' Duncan Smith said in a statement last night. Straw will stand in for the prime minister in a parliamentary debate about last week's meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels, which Blair attended.
Blair has also faced rebellions in the ruling Labour Party, with activists and legislators opposing his plans to set public hospitals free of state control and allow public universities to set their own tuition fees. The U.K. prime minister, a member of parliament since 1983, has led Labour since 1994, when his predecessor John Smith died of a heart attack. Blair led the ruling Labour Party to landslide victories in 1997 and 2001. He is married to Cherie Booth, a lawyer, and has four children, the youngest, Leo, born in May 2000.
Competition With Brown
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer and the second most powerful man in the U.K. government, once competed with Blair for the leadership of the Labour Party. Blair said earlier this month that he hadn't struck a deal with Brown to step down in his favor one day and that he planned to lead the party into the next election and serve a third full term as prime minister. ``There is a big job of work to do -- my appetite for doing it is undiminished,'' Blair said last month. Blair's heart problem is contrast to Brown's personal position. The chancellor's wife gave birth to a baby boy, John, on Friday, and the finance minister is now away from work on paternity leave. //www.bloomberg.com