Blair was a dosser for the night

If it all goes wrong for Tony Blair one day, he may be rather more adaptable than you may think. The Prime Minister was once so broke he slept rough on a park bench, it emerged last night.

The teenage Blair dossed with the down-and-outs near London's Euston station because he could not afford a room for the night, according to his wife Cherie. Admittedly, he was hardly living on his wits: it was 1971, young Tony had just left his public school in Edinburgh, and he was spending his gap year playing at being a musician before starting a law degree at Oxford.

Nevertheless, this romantic tale of starving for his art - even if that art did involve a home-made blue guitar called Clarence, and even if it was for only one night - may at least help restore his street cred in the Labour Party, which has always regarded him as suspiciously posh.

So far, the closest he has come to a housing crisis has been selling the family home in Islington for £615,000 in 1997 only to watch the market soar and it change hands for more than £1 million.

Cherie Blair told a reception at Downing Street last week for the homelessness charity Centrepoint that the cause was close to her husband's heart because of his teenage experiences.

A Downing Street spokesman said last night: 'After he left school the Prime Minister came down to London. He spent a night on a park bench before he sorted out somewhere to stay.'

The Tories accused him of trying to be 'all things to all people', adding he should concentrate on policies to help the homeless.