Cherie Blair calls for more women MPs

The wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair also described the ill-effects of being "knocked out" by swine flu during a recent bout of the illness.

She also reiterated her criticism of Gordon Brown for "pushing too hard" to succeed her husband as Prime Minister in 2004.

The current percentage of 19% of MPs who are women is still not good enough, according to the former Prime Minister's wife.

"You might think that's OK, but I think that's unacceptable," she told an audience at the Edinburgh Book festival last night during a question and answer session.

"I think it's unacceptable because I think politics and representative democracy should be exactly that.

"You don't have to have exactly 51% women - because there are actually more women in our population - but it does need to have a proper, not just women's voice, but a woman's face."

She indicated her support for women only short lists and said to wait for it to happen naturally means it's "not going to happen".

Mr Brown was at the centre of a row earlier this year when Caroline Flint quit the Government claiming women ministers were treated like window dressing.

Mrs Blair said that she was "very proud" that one third of her husband's cabinet was made of women ministers.

Asked by event chair Sheena McDonald if there was any "window dressing" among these, Mrs Blair replied: "No."

And she added: "Why do you think they were window dressing? I think we had formidable women MPs and members of the Cabinet."

Mrs Blair was promoting the paperback version of her book Speaking for Myself which was first published 18 months ago.

It caused a stir at the time when she claimed Mr Brown had been "rattling the keys" of Downing Street above her husband's head in his attempts to become Prime Minister.

And she said tonight: "By the time, in 2004, I felt that Gordon was pushing too hard."

It was around the time of the Iraq war, she added, and Mr Blair had become unsure whether he was helping the Labour Government by carrying on.

"I personally felt that he was and that he was the right person to continue in that job - I felt very strongly about that and I expressed those views," the barrister and QC added.

It emerged last month that Mrs Blair had been struck down by swine flu.

She said: "I can't remember the last time that I was confined to bed for three days - it's not like me at all.

"The truth was I would get up and have to go and lie down again. It was just one of those things."

She added: "I think it just knocks you out."