Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family have arrived in Cornwall after their foreign trip to Mexico in a message of support for the British and Cornish tourist industry.

The Blairs will take up residence at one of the more luxurious hotels in Cornwall - the Carylton Bay Hotel, St Austell - in an attempt to begin the healing process for a tourist industry decimated by foot and mouth disease.

The South-West alone is estimated to have lost as much as £500m this year.

Meanwhile, in Cumbria, another region hard hit by FMD, the Prime Minister's envoy Lord Haskins, has announced with confidence that the end of FMD will signal the recovery of the area's tourist trade.