The grieving mother of a soldier who died during fighting in Afghanistan has criticised the Prime Minister after she waited four months for a letter of condolence.
Corporal Peter Thorpe, 27, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, was killed in an attack in Sangin, in Helmand Province, in July.
His mother Karen Cargan, 44, said she felt as though her son's life had "counted for nothing" in the eyes of the Government.
She decided to speak out after seeing a letter from Mr Blair published in a local newspaper in response to an article about a man who had lost 30 stone.
She said: "I think Tony Blair has got his priorities wrong. I was just absolutely gobsmacked when I saw the letter. When the Prime Minister did not send me a letter of condolence it made me feel as though my son's life counted for nothing.
"The very least I expected from the man who made the ultimate decision to send my son to war was a letter of condolence. It has made me feel as though my son was just a number."
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said a letter had been sent to Mrs Cargan immediately after her son died. Officials are investigating why the letter did not arrive.
He added: "As soon as the Prime Minister discovered this, he immediately wrote again to Mrs Cargan and we know that she has now received the letter.
"The Prime Minister did not write to congratulate someone who had lost half their body weight. He replied to an open letter in a newspaper about how we could tackle the obesity crisis, enclosing a copy of Government proposals which were published that day.
"The Prime Minister has always written personal letters to the families of those servicemen who tragically lose their lives on operations overseas and he always pays tribute to them in Parliament as he did for Corporal Peter Thorpe."
