Cherie must resign over her diaries, says judge

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She is accused of bringing the legal profession into disrepute with her autobiography, which contains indiscreet revelations about figures from the Queen to Bill Clinton. In one excerpt from Speaking For Myself, she says her youngest son Leo was conceived because she was too embarrassed to take contraception to Balmoral.

Mrs Blair, known as Cherie Booth professionally, is a QC and a recorder - a barrister appointed to serve as a parttime judge. The £1m she is reported to have received for her memoirs far exceeds her earnings as a publicly funded barrister. In the 12 months to April last year she earned less than £70,000 as a legal aid QC and a judge.

Gerald Butler QC, who was senior justice at Southwark Crown Court for 13 years, said: "I don't think she should continue to sit as a recorder. If she wants to tread this path of making money by outrageous comments that is up to her, but I don't think this is a job for a judge. It shows a complete lack of any kind of decency. It's the kind of conduct which demeans the legal profession. It is disgraceful, but nothing less than I would expect from her."

John Cooper, a senior criminal barrister who sits on the Bar Council, did not want to comment on the claims against Mrs Blair, but said: "One of the important factors in being a judge is being able to exercise judgment, and part of that judgment is being trusted with confidential material. One has to be very careful, in my view, in what one exposes to the public gaze. I know of no High Court judge who has written their memoirs before they have retired."

Mrs Blair, 53, was unavailable for comment today, but her publisher rejected the criticism. A spokeswoman for Little, Brown, said: "This is complete nonsense from someone who has not read the book. There is so much more to Cherie Blair's autobiography than is apparent from the headlines of the past week."

A spokesman for the Bar Standards Board, which regulates barristers' conduct, said:

"This issue has not been raised with us."