London – Britain will have to “put up with me for a bit longer,” Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday, a day after police revealed that they questioned him a second time in an investigation into whether political honors such as knighthoods were traded for cash.
The Labor leader last year became the first serving prime minister in British history to be questioned in a criminal investigation – and there is growing concern in his party about the damaging effect it is having on his government. But Blair said he would not let the inquiry drive him from office.
“I think it would be particularly wrong … before the inquiry has even run its course and come to any conclusions,” Blair told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. “So you will have to put up with me for a bit longer.”
Blair has suffered a series of setbacks over the years, but his third term has been particularly explosive – voters angry over his handling of the Iraq war cost his party a significant share of its parliamentary seats in 2005 and pummeled the party a second time in local elections last year. It was that defeat that sparked a party rebellion that ultimately forced Blair to announce he’ll resign by September.
The honors scandal, however, may be Blair’s final battle as prime minister.
“I am not going to beg for my character in front of anyone,” Blair said.
