Tributes are pouring in to "feisty and fearless" Mo Mowlam, the former Northern Ireland Secretary whose good humour and natural political judgement was crucial in bringing together Ulster's divided factions for the Good Friday Agreement.

Dr Mowlam, 55, was admitted to hospital earlier this month after a fall while suffering side-effects from treatment for a brain tumour. She was transferred to the Pilgrim Hospice in Canterbury, near to the home she shared with her husband Jon Norton, a merchant banker, where she died at 8.10am today.

The MP for Redcar in northeast England from 1987 until her retirement in 2001, Dr Mowlam's cheerful irreverence made her one of New Labour’s most popular figures.

Tony Blair, who is on holiday with his family, released a statement paying tribute to her as "one of the most remarkable and colourful personalities" ever to enter British politics.

The Prime Minister said she had transformed the politics of Northern Ireland as well as playing a key role in the creation of New Labour.

"Great company, utterly irreverent, full of life and fun," he said.

"Yet behind that extraordinary front presented to the world was one of the shrewdest political minds I ever encountered. She was a natural politician, could read a situation and analyse and assess it as fast as anyone.

"She was a key architect of new Labour but had support across the spectrum. She was a totally modern social democrat but was equally at home with a traditional trade union audience.

"The only thing she couldn’t handle was stuffiness of any kind and that was because she didn’t want to.

"Of course she came into her own in respect of Northern Ireland. It is no exaggeration to say she transformed the politics not just of Northern Ireland itself but crucially of relations between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and it was this transformation that created the culture in which peace-making could flourish," he said.

"Suddenly Nationalist, Republican and Catholic Ireland had every preconception of the English up-ended and rendered out of date. She didn’t have to talk about equality. She exuded it, naturally and with an absence of affectation that was marvellous to behold.

"I remember the early meetings leading up to the Good Friday Agreement and the slightly bemused astonishment of all and sundry as, by a mixture of determination, charm and sheer life force, she bowled everyone over."

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