BLACKBURN MP Jack Straw is celebrating becoming a grandad - twice in two days.
The 67-year-old’s doctor daughter Charlotte gave birth on Thursday afternoon to a son, Jarvis John, at Wythenshawe Hospital, forcing the politician to miss the Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School prizegiving.
And on Saturday, son Will’s wife Claire delivered a second grandson, Matthew William, on her husband’s 33rd birthday.
Mr Straw and his 64-year-old wife, Alice are delighted at the double birth - if a little exhausted and stunned.
After Charlotte, 31, who works in a Manchester hosp- ital, gave birth, her newborn son was rushed to the special care unit, giving her father, who lost his first child Rachel after five days in 1976, anxious moments.
Now she and her 33-year-old RAF officer husband John are delighted that not only is all well, but her baby has a cousin as well.
Will and his 29-year-old charity worker wife Claire are also delighted at the sudden double extension to the family.
New grandfather Jack said, as he boarded a train from Manchester to London to see grandson number two yesterday: “Alice and I are over the moon to have become grandparents twice in two days. Both boys are absolutely gorgeous.
“Jarvis, Charlotte and John’s baby, weighed in at seven pounds three ounces, born in Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester on Thursday.
“Claire and Will’s baby Matthew weighed in at seven pounds six ounces on Saturday, at St Thomas’s Hospital, London, on Will’s birthday.
“And he was born in exactly the same ward as his dad, Will, had been 33 years before.
“Little Jarvis gave us all a scare as he had an infection and has had to be kept in hospital, but we are all mightily relieved to say he is fine now and is in an ordinary post-natal ward.
“This had happened to me before, so it made it all the more poignant, but all is well now.
“I was on the way to QEGS prizegiving, in Black-burn town centre, when I got the call about Charlotte and diverted to the railway station.”
Will Straw, the recently adopted Labour candidate for Rossendale and Darwen, said: “Matthew’s arrival was the perfect birthday present. Claire and I could not be happier.
“He is a sweet-natured little boy. I cannot wait for the sleepless nights.”
QEGS headteacher Simon Corns said: “I understand why Jack could not make the prizegiving and am delighted for him and his family.”
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