Blair black eye blamed on gym accident

LONDON, July 4 (UPI) -- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair received an award for services to India sporting a blue shirt and black eye.

A member of Blair's staff blamed the shiner on "a gym-related accident," the Daily Mail reported. Blair has a reputation as a fitness fanatic and installed a gym at 10 Downing Street during his tenure as prime minister.

Blair, 56, received a medal Friday from Peter Mandelson, a political ally and member of his cabinet now serving as first secretary of state, secretary of state for business, innovation and skills and lord president of the council.

"When Tony Blair became prime minister, he immediately saw that the relationship between the United Kingdom and India had become too comfortable and unproductive," Barry Gardiner, head of Labor Friends of India, said. "He knew that, if we were to form a strong partnership, it should not be on the basis of old sentimentality, but upon a shared vision of modern and equal trading partners who recognized each other's strategic global role in working for justice and security."

Blair did not mention the black eye during the ceremony.