Downing Street insisted last night it would not risk a media "open season" on the Blair children.

Number 10 reacted angrily after several newspapers yesterday ignored their privacy pleas and published pictures of Tony Blair taking his son Leo to be christened in his County Durham constituency.

The Press Complaints Commission has been asked to rule whether this breached media guidelines that children should not be pictured without the permission of their parents.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman Alastair Campbell acknowledged the pictures, taken outside the St John Fisher RC Church in Sedgefield, were inoffensive but said they wanted to see the issue resolved.

He said: "This is not a formal complaint, but we are genuinely seeking their advice on how best to handle a difficult area for the family." He added: "On the one hand, it was obvious from the number of local people who turned up yesterday that this was a happy event in which people wanted to share, and the pictures published are perfectly inoffensive.

"On the other hand, the Prime Minister and Mrs Blair are concerned that to give consent to publication on such occasions risks giving open season to the press, not just in relation to the baby, but their other children too.

"This is a genuine dilemma and one which they hope can be addressed in a sensible way that takes into account their legitimate desire to see their children enjoy as normal an upbringing as possible in the abnormal circumstances of being children of a serving Prime Minister."

This is the second privacy row to blow up over Leo Blair. A month ago, The Northern Echo sparked national controversy by publishing a picture of Leo taken by a local school.

It is thought Mr Blair is keen not to be seen as being churlish or heavy-handed with the media about pictures of his baby son.

But he is aware he could be accused of trying to exploit the Downing Street baby for political gain if too many pictures appear of him with Leo.

The Blairs have always made strenuous efforts to protect the privacy of their other three children, twice complaining about intrusion to the Press Complaints Commission.

Ministers have also defended the Prime Minister from suggestions he was being over-sensitive about his son.

On the BBC's Breakfast With Frost programme yesterday, Culture Secretary Chris Smith said the photographs were "lovely pictures".

However, he added: "The point the Prime Minister is trying to make is that he doesn't want intrusive attention."

John Burton, the Prime Minister's constituency agent, said Mr Blair faced a "difficult dilemma" over access to baby Leo. He said: "The Prime Minister wants people to see the baby. At the christening he went along the crowd for about 15 minutes and let people take photos of him.

"There is a difference, though, between letting people see the baby and take private pictures and having his image plastered all over the newspapers.

"To allow unlimited access to the kid, would mean he would never be out of the papers. The question is, where do you draw the line?"

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