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Camden New Journal - By RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 10 January 2008

Fiona Millar

Je t’aime... Alastair whisks Fiona away to ‘street party’ in Paris

Blair’s spin doctor takes partner, her neighbours and Labour top brass to France for birthday

IF a street in Gospel Oak seemed a little quieter than normal on Saturday night, it might just have been because most of its residents were in Paris celebrating the 50th birthday of one its more familiar residents.
To mark his partner’s big five-oh, Tony Blair’s revered spin doctor Alastair Campbell showed his softer side by whisking Fiona Millar off to Paris on the new high-speed Eurostar link and sat her down at one of the city’s fine bistros.
But if she was ever expecting a secret getaway and an intimate dinner for two on the banks of the River Seine, Ms Millar was to be mistaken.
Not only did the couple’s close relatives jump on the train heading for the French capital, so did all their neighbours in Estelle Road and surrounding streets.
While they had to pay for their travel and hotels, Mr Campbell shelled out for dinner, wine and champagne, and later treated – if that’s the right word – them to his favourite party trick: a few tunes on his bag-pipes.
Ms Millar, a campaigning education journalist, said: “We have lived in Gospel Oak for 20 years, all the kids have been to local schools and quite a few of my friends from my schooldays at Camden still live around here so inevitably there were a lot of people from this neighbourhood.”
She added: “I was very touched that so many wanted to come, although that may have had something to do with having an excuse to get away from London the first weekend of the New Year.”
The good folk of Gospel Oak were joined by a host of high-ranking Labour figures. Former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and his wife Pat made the trip. Tessa Jowell and her estranged husband David Mills also turned out, as did Mr Blair’s favourite pollster Lord Gould and his publisher wife Gail Rebuck. Foreign Secretary David Miliband was apparently also on the invite list but was not spotted at the party.
One invitee said: “Alastair made a speech about how wonderful Fiona is and made a joke I think people have heard before about how she had put up with him leaving her for another man. He meant Tony Blair, of course. There wasn’t any dancing, just a lovely meal and some fine wine and a blast on the bagpipes.”
The guest added: “In the morning, Alastair left at the crack of dawn so he could get back in time to see Burnley play Arsenal. Football comes first with some of these guys.”

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