Tony Blair

1. His nickname at Fettes College, Edinburgh, was Miranda because of his fresh face and long hair

2. He got close to Cherie for the first time at a party in 1976 when they played a game that required a balloon to be passed through each other’s legs

3. At 17 he was beaten by his housemaster at Fettes, Bob Roberts, who gave him “six of the best” for persistent flouting of the rules

4. As early as 1988 he was refusing to drive, because, according to Cherie, who took the wheel instead, “if something happened while Tony was driving it would probably be splashed across the newspapers”

5. He is only a quarter English. His father's side is a quarter pure Berkshire yeoman stock, an eighth Manx (from the Isle of Man) and an eighth Anglo-Irish. On his mother’s side, he is half Scots-Irish

6. At Oxford, he dated the Canadian Mary Harron, director of American Psycho and I Shot Andy Warhol

7. He was once summoned to see the Dean of St John’s College to answer the charge that a woman had visited his room outside permitted hours. A lipstick had been found in Blair’s room. “Oh, that’s mine,” he replied when confronted with the evidence

8. He sleeps in a £3,500 Swedish bed which he had delivered weeks after moving into Downing Street in 1997

9. At junior school, he came top of the class in two subjects: Latin and scripture

10. In the late 1980s, he became a columnist for The Times, with his work appearing more or less fortnightly.

Michael Howard

1. He has admitted that he used to bunk off school to play snooker. He used to leave Llanelli Grammar School at lunchtime for the “nefarious purpose” of honing his skills in Jack’s Snooker Hall in the town

2. He was notoriously anti-rugby and pro-football while at school, to the annoyance of the school authorities

3. Howard played the guitar in a skiffle band. “It was at school; Lonnie Donegan, that sort of thing”

4. At Peterhouse, Cambridge, he got only a lower second in his law degree

5. He has always shown an interest in American horror films

6. By the age of 40 Howard was rich enough to become a member of Lloyd’s after a legal career specialising in tricky planning appeals, such as the Sizewell B power station and Okehampton bypass

7. He resigned from the Conservative Association committee over its decision to invite Oswald Mosley to speak and later joined the Campaign for Social Democracy, a minor political party in the 1970s formed by an ex-Labour MP

8. Howard was known at university as a bit of a dandy. While the others went for zip-up jackets, his soft lambswool pullovers and high-sided elastic boots earned him many female admirers

9. Howard shared a bachelor flat in Harley Street during the Sixties with Norman Lamont, and was his best man

10. When he was Home Secretary, he insisted that whenever he got in his ministerial car, pop music was played at full volume. His driver would wait until he fell asleep, then turn it down

Charles Kennedy

1. He lives next door to his Mum and Dad in Scotland

2. As health spokesman he was once overheard, after an interview, saying: “That’s enough health food, I need a fag."

3. At university he was nicknamed “Taxi” Kennedy after he chartered a cab from St Andrews to Edinburgh to get to a debate in Ireland, and because of his habit of taking cab for the quarter-mile journey from the union to his lectures

4. In 1994, he was caught in a bookies betting that his party would only win two seats in the European elections. Unlike most of his party's candidates in that election, he won and pocketed £2,000.

5. He had speech therapy while at primary school to correct a lisp

6. He opposed the admission of women as members of the Glasgow Univeristy Union — the last all male union in the world — when he was president in 1980

7. He was the only party leader to refuse the invitation to the Dome on 31 December, 1999, as he wanted to see in the millennium with the same group of friends with whom he has partied every New Year since he graduated.

8. He is allergic to dogs, grass and make-up.

9. Supported the abolition of the BBC licence fee in 1986, three years after leaving his job as a journalist with BBC Highlands

10. He jointly holds the record for most guest appearances on Have I Got News For You, with his seven appearances placing him alongside Clive Anderson, Germaine Greer, Ken Livingstone and Will Self

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