BLACKBURN MP Jack Straw spent a nervous New Year's Eve at the Millennium Dome as the minister in charge of the emergency services' busiest night ever.

Mr Straw was responsible for months of planning to make sure the 999 services could cope with the night billed as Britain's biggest party.

He chaired a final meeting of the civil contingencies committee at 7.30pm at Downing Street before going to the Millennium Dome with his family for the party, attended by the Queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He said: "I wasn't nervous because I had gone beyond the point of nerves, but I was concerned as I was ultimately responsible if there had been a serious disturbance or problem.

"I stayed sober throughout the evening. I didn't touch a drop until midnight when I was sure everything would be all right."

He then went home on a boat across the Thames with the Prime Minister and other VIPs before starting work again at 8am on New Year's Day.

Mr Straw said there were no major problems nationwide and he praised police and other emergency services for the way they handled the event.

He said: "All the preparations and planning that all the services put in seemed to work very well and everybody could enjoy themselves."

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