Screaming fits of Cherie Blair's stepmother, by charity workers

Steph Booth, accompanied at the hearing by Till Death Us Do Part actor Tony Booth, the father of the former prime minister's wife, was "rude and condescending" and would "scream" at other staff at the children's charity where she worked as a teacher, the tribunal was told.

Mrs Booth, who has been selected to stand as a Labour candidate for the Calder Valley constituency in West Yorkshire in the next election, was also accused of scheming to discredit a local Labour Party rival.

Gareth Binding, the chief executive of the organisation, Cool UK, where Mrs Booth worked, said he asked her about Criminal Records Bureau checks after she began working for him in April 2008.

"She said because of who she was related to she had received clearance at the highest level and scoffed at the idea," Mr Binding said.

He added: "She asked, 'Would you like me to ask Tony or Cherie to verify who I am?'"

Mrs Booth, from Todmorden, West Yorkshire, is taking her former employers to tribunal by claiming she was dismissed for whistle-blowing because the organisation was "chaotic" and failing children.

She is being represented by a solicitor from London's Matrix Chambers, where the QC wife of Tony Blair is based.

Mrs Booth has told the hearing she was branded a "f****** bitch by Mr Binding during a management meeting and her relatives "sneered at". She was made redundant from her 26,000-a-year job in March last year.

The charity offers a "radical and experimental alternative" to traditional education to help teenagers excluded from school by teaching them vocational subjects such as health and beauty, construction and vehicle maintenance.

Mr Binding said Mrs Booth was employed after saying she was extremely well connected in political circles, "by being related by marriage to the former prime minister Tony Blair and his wife."

But after she started at Cool UK, which has bases in Manchester and Burnley, complaints from other workers started straight away, Mr Binding said.

"I heard about the tantrums," he said.

"The difficulties were arising due to the claimant's (Mrs Booth) negative and superior attitude to them and inability to work as a team member."

Mr Binding said other workers complained about the way they were spoken to and her "demanding ways" - ordering them to make cups of tea and fetch her lunch.

He said she would "scream" at other children's instructors and shout and belittle students, saying: "I'm the teacher here, I'm the one with qualifications."

However Mrs Booth was apparently promoted by Mr Binding to position of development director and moved to the Burnley HQ - but the problems followed he said.

Mr Binding said during a discussion about appointing people to the board of trustees of the charity she suggested local Labour Party members - but he suggested a local child protection officer.

"What that blonde bimbo?" Mr Binding said she replied, "We need movers and shakers not social workers."

Mrs Booth has accused Mr Binding of trying to destroy her reputation and credibility and "sabotage" her campaign to become an MP, by writing letters which were seen by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

But he told the tribunal another member of staff had told him he had been "coerced" by Mrs Booth into writing derogatory remarks about a local Labour Party rival.

Mr Binding said he felt "morally obliged" to take the matter up with the local Labour Party and admitted writing to Gordon Brown over the matter.

"She had made it quite clear she wanted her colleague ousted from her position in the Labour Party in Calder Valley.

"I felt the claimant had abused her position...and concerned for the person who she had written the comment about."

Mr Binding denied ever calling her a "f****** bitch" or writing the letters because of her "whistle-blowing" about the organisation he ran.

The hearing continues.