Host linked to PM's wife's first kiss

by Ewan Turney

A Punch licensee has found himself at the wrong end of a kiss and tell story - by the Prime Minister's wife.

Steve Smerdon, of the Bull Inn in Whitwell, Hertfordshire, was 'shocked' and 'surprised' to hear that Cherie Blair had told reporters attending the Labour Party conference in Brighton that her first kiss had been with him under the iron bridge in Waterloo, Liverpool.

The pair grew up in the same street and became close when Smerdon's father, Denis, became her teacher, and later mentor, at St Edmunds primary school.

'I can't believe Cherie told everyone,' said Smerdon.

'It was something that had been completely private. I had mentioned it to a few regulars but nobody believed me.'

Smerdon claimed that the pair were 11 years old when they first smooched and not seven as Blair claims.

'We weren't boyfriend and girlfriend as such as it was in the early '60s and I thought if I kissed a girl she might pregnant. I must have made some impression for her to remember it 40 years later though.'

He remembers Cherie Blair as a 'very attractive', 'warm-hearted' and 'intelligent' woman. She was a person determined to get on in life.

Smerdon added: 'If you ask Cherie she would list my father as one of the biggest influences on her life.'

Smerdon, and his wife, Claire, took on the Bull Inn four years ago mainly because of the 'lovely' village of Whitwell and the 'fantastic people'.

However, the couple are not expecting a major surge in business following the revelations, or indeed a personal visit from the Prime Minister's wife.

'I might give her a piece of my mind for telling everyone,' he said. 'I am not used to all the media attention.'