Labour coy over Tony Blair tennis match auction

LONDON (Reuters) - Labour remained coy on Friday about just how much the chance to play tennis with former Prime Minister Tony Blair is worth.

The cash-strapped Labour Party raised hundreds of thousands of pounds at its annual sports dinner and auction at Wembley Stadium on Thursday evening, but a party spokesman refused to disclose who bid what and how much it would cost to rally with Blair.

Along with the Blair match, the chance to have lunch with Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and win a specially commissioned work of art by "Angel of the North" artist Antony Gormley were in demand at the auction.

"There was very competitive bidding for Blair, Gormley and Ferguson," the spokesman said.

Prior to the auction, which was attended by over 600 guests and sports stars including Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah, newspapers reported the Ferguson lunch had attracted a 50,000-pound advance bid.

Other popular bids included the chance to be a character in former Labour Party spin doctor Alastair Campbell's new novel as well as to take part in a charity soccer game between a Gordon Banks side and a Pele team.

World Cup winners Banks and Pele will face each other as managers in a weekend of events to honor the former England great, who made what was arguably the greatest save in the history of the game against the Brazilian in the 1970 World Cup.

The evening was arranged to help ease Labour's debts of 25 million pounds.

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(Reporting by John Joseph; Editing by Steve Addison and Paul Casciato)