TONY Blair is the third Labour leader in 40 years - and the second in succession - to suffer serious heart problems.
He took over from John Smith, who died following a cardiac arrest in May 1994, aged 55. Hugh Gaitskell died of a heart attack while Labour leader in January 1963, aged 56.
No Prime Minister has died in office since Lord Palmerston succumbed to a
fever in 1865 at the age of 80. But the increasing stress of high public office - worsened by the immediacy of modern media scrutiny - has led to prime ministers resigning through ill health.
Anthony Eden faced heavy criticism over Britain’s involvement in the Suez crisis in 1956. Already weakened by a botched gall bladder operation, overwork made him ill and he stood down in January 1957.
Sir Winston Churchill had several strokes during his last years in office, but these were kept secret. He remained in Parliament until the age of 81, in 1955.
More recently, prominent members of the government have died. Iain MacLeod, the Chancellor under Sir Edward Heath, had a heart attack and died in office in 1970, aged 57. Anthony Crosland, the Labour Foreign Secretary, died from a stroke in 1977, aged 58.
In the United States, former President Bill Clinton, 58, had a quadruple heart bypass operation earlier this month after a serious health scare.
But heart conditions need not curtail a political career. Dick Cheney, the current US vice-president, had a pacemaker fitted almost three years ago when he was 60.
Ramsay MacDonald suffered from poor health, both physical and mental, after attempting to hold together his coalition government in the mid-1930s. He died in 1937 only two years after losing power.
Besides Palmerston, three other British prime ministers died in office. William Pitt "the younger", who was 24 when he became Britain’s youngest prime minister to date, was 46 when he died in 1806.
Spencer Perceval is the only prime minister to have been assassinated. He was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons by John Bellingham, in May 1812. George Canning, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, took office in 1827, caught pneumonia and was dead after only 119 days in power. He was 57.
The full article contains 404 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
