Cherie Booth, QC, has hinted that she is less than enthusiastic about her husband’s new role as Middle East envoy and the impact on their family.

On her first evening out of Downing Street, Ms Booth told an audience of 200 lawyers: “Only my husband would volunteer for the most dangerous job in the world, at the moment. That will impose some restrictions on what we can do.”

Ms Booth was presenting the 2007 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards on Thursday night. Asked by the compere, John Howard, about the highs and lows of the past decade, she said that one of the lows was being caught off-guard answering the front door in her nightie the morning after Labour’s victory in 1997.

As to the highs, she said: “To have a baby at 45 and have him born in such extraordinary circumstances. Obviously that was a huge thing and for a working-class girl like me to get to hobnob with the Queen and the President and . . . meeting two popes.” Ms Booth described legal aid lawyers as “doughty fighters” and admitted her own frustration at legal aid rates of pay. “Sometimes when I get my cheque from the Legal Services Commission I get a bit depressed too, I can assure you.”

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But Ms Booth, a top silk in public and employment law, admitted that she was lucky enough to have a mixed practice so that she did not have to live entirely on legal aid.

“We are doughty fighters. We keep taking the impossible cases, for our clients. If we can’t do that for ourselves as well, we are not the people I think we are.”

She added: “I feel tremendously proud of the past 10 years. As lawyers we can look back on some of the things we have achieved – the Human Rights Act and abolishing discrimination in various fields. There’s a lot to be proud of.”

She presented the top prize to Alured Darlington, a lawyer who has campaigned for reforms to help victims of domestic violence.

Jan Luba, QC, who specialises in fighting for the rights of the homeless, won the barrister of the year award.

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