Ms Barnes, the 24-year-old daughter of Denis MacShane, the Minister for Europe, and Carol Barnes, the ITN newsreader, had just completed a series of aerial acrobatics when both her parachutes failed.

Witnesses said that she fought frantically to disen- tangle her main and reserve parachutes before she crashed into a paddock in Connewarre, 65 miles from Melbourne.

Her parents said yesterday: “Carol Barnes and Denis MacShane have lost their lovely and much-loved daughter, Clare, in a skydiving accident in Melbourne. She died as she lived, living at the edge of experience in a sport that gave her immense pleasure.

“After she jumped with friends from the plane she kissed her boyfriend as they flew together in the blue skies of Australia where she found happiness.”

In the statement they added that their daughter had suffered instant oblivion when she hit the ground and that her brother, half-brother and half-sisters were united in grief.

Ms Barnes, who had remained close to both her parents, had moved to Melbourne and embarked on a new life. She had intended to settle in Australia, having gone there more than two years ago.

Mr MacShane and Carol Barnes were preparing yesterday to fly to Australia with their son, James, 23, to make arrangements for the funeral.

Tony Blair has written a personal note of condolence to Mr MacShane, who had spent the weekend immersed in the Spanish election and the tragedy of the Madrid bombings. He was a government representative at the march through Madrid on Friday night, joining millions of Spaniards protesting at the blasts.

On Saturday morning he flew back to Manchester with John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, to join the Labour Party spring conference.It was there, on Sunday morning, that Mr MacShane is understood to have learnt of the Melbourne accident.

When the conference ended on Sunday, he is understood to have gone to his Rotherham constituency, from where he stayed in close touch with Spanish Socialist friends.

The Times called him on Sunday night to discuss the results of Spain’s election and he gave no hint of his loss. He had continued to work as normal for several hours that day. Friends said that it was his way of coping with the loss.

Mike Kelly, Mr MacShane’s assistant in the House of Commons, said: “It’s impossible to describe how devastated Denis must be. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.”

David Mannion, Editor-in-Chief of ITV News, said:

“Carol’s many friends at ITN were devastated to hear this news. Our hearts go out to Carol and Denis.”

The minister, then a union activist, and Carol Barnes lived together for four years until they separated in 1981. He married Natalie Pham in 1987 and had three more daughters.

Ms Barnes, once voted broadcaster of the year, married Nigel Thompson, but they separated in 1999.

Clare Barnes jumped from 14,000ft with eight others after taking off from Barwon Heads airfield. Luke McWilliams, of the Skydive City club, which organised the jump, said that members were stunned. “She was a very adventurous woman, a positive person, a brilliant person,” he said. “We are all in shock. She was one of the most lovely people you could meet.”

Dave Smith, the executive director of the Australian Parachute Federation, said: “It’s the nature of the sport in some respects. This is one of those unfortunate accidents that happen occasionally. When you go skydiving you have very little time to deal with problems.”

Investigators from the federation, Victoria Police and the Civil Aviation Safety Bureau are trying to establish why the main and emergency parachutes became entangled. The main parachute would have been deployed at 2,500ft and it was not clear yesterday whether it had failed before the emergency canopy was released or because both were released simultaneously.

As well as the main canopy skydivers have an emergency parachute that deploys automatically 750ft from the ground if the velocity is beyond safe limits.

Parachuting safety is a priority in Australia, where 72,000 people make their first jump each year.

But in January Pauline Richards, 44, British champion sky surfer, died when she landing heavily in a 13,000ft jump near Melbourne.

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