Scandal forgotten, Cherie calls on her friends in high places Her father, who with his brother topped this year's Sunday Times Rich List with a joint fortune of £11.9 billion - and who had donated £1 million to the Millennium Dome, - became a household name in 2001 when Peter Mandelson resigned as Northern Ireland secretary after accepting he had misled the public by claiming an official in his office spoke to the Home Office about the passport application, when in fact he had phoned personally. Keith Vaz, who had also phoned the Home Office about the Hinduja passport application, stood down from his post as Europe minister for health reasons following allegations that he had failed to declare hospitality from the Hindujas. Mr Vaz, who is now chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, was later cleared of wrongdoing by a parliamentary inquiry but was criticised for deliberately concealing from the parliamentary watchdog payments to his wife's law firm by the Hinduja brothers. Also recruited to Omnia's advisory council is Baroness Scotland, who was caught up in her own passport controversy during her time as attorney general in 2009. Lady Scotland unwittingly employed a Tongan illegal immigrant - who was using a forged stamp in her passport - as her housekeeper and was fined £5,000 for failing to keep copies of documents used to check her immigration status. Another adviser is Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man with a fortune of £16 billion. Nigeria-based Mr Dangote is likely to have given Mrs Blair advice on taking on work in Africa. His firm has clients in Nigeria, Ghana, Gabon and Cameroon. With such wealthy friends to keep up with, it is perhaps no surprise that Mrs Blair's acquisitive streak shows no sign of slowing down. Together with Euan, she has set up a property firm, Oldbury Residential Ltd, which already owns a block of 14 flats in Stockport and a further 10 apartments in Manchester. The properties are reported to have cost £2.2 million, but property prices in the North West are rising faster than anywhere else in the country, making them a sound investment. The Blairs are likely to earn around £130,000 a year in rent from the properties. The Blair family owns a further seven properties, including their £5 million London home and a £5.75 million Grade I-listed Buckinghamshire manor house. At the age of 60, Mrs Blair continues to drive herself to the limit, combining her various professional roles with bringing up the Blairs" youngest son, Leo, now 14. Friends have become increasingly concerned that Mrs Blair, whose husband spends long periods abroad, is pushing herself too hard. "In many ways, she is busier than ever," said a source close to Mrs Blair. She has an exhausting lifestyle, with a lot of travelling, and never seems to switch off. She will email her staff at five to midnight because she is still thinking about work and has just come up with an idea. I suppose you would describe her as a workaholic. She likes to be busy. For Mrs Blair, 2014 has also been something of an annus horribilis. She was furious when it emerged that Rupert Murdoch's former wife Wendi Deng had developed an obsession with Mr Blair. Weeks later, she was accused of gross hypocrisy for publicly championing flexible working for mothers while privately getting rid of her part-time receptionist, who could not take on the role full-time because of child care commitments. Her 83-year-old father Tony Booth, meanwhile, is increasingly frail with Alzheimer's, and Mrs Blair tries to spend one night each week in West Yorkshire to give his wife Stephanie a break from caring for him.