Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed on Friday not to quit before British police finished a political funding investigation, despite growing alarm in his Labour party over the damage the probe is inflicting on the government.
Blair, questioned by police for a second time about the case last Friday, voiced hope the investigation would end soon and said that in the meantime he was getting on with his job.
”I totally understand why this obviously is very distracting and somewhat obsessive for the media. It’s bound to be. But it isn’t for me,” Blair told BBC Radio in an interview.
Police had said they planned to wrap up the investigation by the end of January but recently said they would need more time.
Blair has said he will step down this year after a decade in power and many politicians expect him to hand over to Finance Minister Gordon Brown in July. Blair said he would not bring forward his resignation despite the rising pressure.
”I don’t think that’s the right way to do it and I think it would be particularly wrong to do it before the inquiry has even run its course and come to any conclusions. So you’ll have to put up with me for a bit longer,” he said.
Police are probing whether Labour and other parties recommended donors, or those giving loans, for state honours that come with seats in the unelected upper House of Parliament.
Labour’s top fundraiser and a Blair aide were arrested last month on suspicion of obstructing justice, leading opposition politicians to draw parallels with Watergate, the scandal that forced former United States President Nixon to resign in 1974.
Corrosive effect
The affair has added another dent to the image of a government battered by the Iraq war, and the opposition Conservatives now consistently lead Labour in opinion polls.
In December, Blair became the first serving British prime minister to be questioned by police in a criminal investigation.
Police have interviewed him both times as a witness, not a suspect. No one has been charged and all those questioned deny wrongdoing.
Labour Party chairperson Hazel Blears, a Blair loyalist, was one of several senior party figures to express concern over the impact of the police investigation that began in March.
”I think inevitably when you have this kind of thing going on for months and months it does have a corrosive effect,” she told the BBC.
Blair refused to discuss details of the case but urged the public not to believe everything reported. This ”type of scandal and controversy” were part of modern politics, he said.
”People can make up their mind about me … I’m not going to get into a situation where I’m sort of pleading for my integrity,” he said.
”I don’t say I’ve always got everything right — of course I haven’t. There have been mistakes and things that have gone wrong along the way. But … I do believe there’s a lot that’s been good for the country as well.” — Reuters