Prime Minister pays tribute to 'remarkable' Mo Mowlam

Prime Minister Tony Blair led the parliamentary tributes today to his former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, who died aged 55 following a long illness.

Ms Mowlam, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1997, was admitted to hospital following a fall and did not regain consciousness.

Mr Blair said that Ms Mowlam was "surely one of the most remarkable and colourful personalities ever to come into politics."

"Great company, utterly irreverent, full of life and fun. Yet behind that extraordinary front presented to the world, was one of the shrewdest political minds I ever encountered. She was a natural politician, could read a situation and analyse and assess it as fast as anyone."

Mr Blair credited Ms Mowlam as a "key architect of New Labour" who had attracted support from across the spectrum.

"She was a totally modern social democrat but was equally at home with a traditional trade union audience. The only thing she couldn't handle was stuffiness of any kind and that was because she didn't want to," he said.

"Throughout the years of Opposition, she was instrumental in turning the Labour Party into a Party of Government. Of course, she came into her own in respect of Northern Ireland. It is no exaggeration to say she transformed the politics not just of Northern Ireland itself but crucially of relations between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom; and it was this transformation that created the culture in which peace-making could flourish."

Mr Blair said that Ms Mowlam would be "mourned in Ireland every bit as much as here."

"Her illness was a tragedy," he said. "She bore it with legendary fortitude. The last two years were difficult. Her husband Jon, to whom she was devoted, nursed her with immense care and patience. Our thoughts and sympathy are with him, with the two children and all the family. Mo was a complete one-off. We were lucky to know her."

Elected Labour MP for Redcar in 1987, Mo Mowlam was appointed as opposition spokesperson on Northern Ireland in that year.

A role that led her to be Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 1994, and eventually prepared her for the post of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 1997, the same year that she was diagnosed with cancer.

(SP/GB)