CHERIE BLAIR’S stepmother has claimed she was hounded out of her job at a Burnley education firm after complaining that colleagues were buying pornography while look-ing after vulnerable children.

Stephanie Booth said she raised the alarm over staff from Cool UK purchasing adult material at the scheme’s construction skills base in Travis Street.

Mrs Booth, wife of Mrs Blair’s father Tony, also expressed concern about the firm rehiring a staff member who had been jailed for disqualified driving, an industrial tribunal in Manchester was told.

She said the unnamed worker, who she claimed had also been caught downloading porn using a work’s computer, was allowed to give one-on-one supervision to six youngsters as they undertook exams in Burnley.

Hired initially as a teacher and later promoted to becoming the project’s development director, Mrs Booth told the tribunal she was also assaulted by a female student at Cool UK’s unit in Manchester.

She told the tribunal that when she raised health and safety concerns about the conditions staff were expected to work in, chief executive Gareth Binding failed to act.

Another pupil was also assaulted at the organisation’s unit in Trafford and she told the hearing she discovered no-one there was trained in first aid.

The tribunal heard that matters came to a head at a staff meeting in February 2009, in front of fellow staff.

Mrs Booth said: “Mr Binding’s behaviour towards me was aggressive and derogatory in front of my colleagues.”

She said that Mr Binding mocked her “accent, education and relatives” and did not take her concerns seriously.

Mrs Booth, from Todmorden, is claiming unfair dismissal on the grounds she was sacked for identifying failings and health and safety concerns with her employers, along with breach of contract. She has said she was owed a promised £1,000 redundancy payout.

The tribunal heard she was initially hired as a teacher, despite having no formal qualifications, and left just under a year later, after being signed off sick with stress by her GP.

Last year Mrs Booth was selected as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Calder Valley, a seat which covers Todmorden and surrounding villages.

She is further alleging that Mr Binding tried to “sabotage” her bid to become an MP, even sending a letter to Labour’s National Executive Committee claiming she would have faced disciplinary proceedings if she had not quit.

Other letters, making various allegations about Mrs Booth, were also copied to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the tribunal heard.

Mrs Booth said she still considered that the idea behind Cool UK, to provide a vocational alternative to mainstream education for hard-to-reach youngsters, was “amazing”.

But she became increasingly concerned about the lack of resources for even basic materials.

Cool UK’s head office is in Manchester Road, Burnley, and the company has sites in Travis Street and Farrington Close.

Proceeding