Defiant Blair rejects quit calls

Tony Blair is adamant that, despite a second interview by the police, he intends to remain in office saying, "You will have to put up with me for a bit longer."

Blair has never named a date for his exit although he is widely expected to leave Downing Street in June, having taken the expected hit at the May local elections.

However, as the repercussions from the Cash for Honours enquiry threatens to engulf his administration there are many within and out with his party who are calling for him to fall on his sword.

Senior Labour figures, including party chairman Hazel Blears and former leader Neil Kinnock, have said the cash-for-honours inquiry is damaging the government.

Conservative leader David Cameron has called on Mr Blair to stand down now "in the national interest".

Blair has launched a defence that it would "not be very democratic" if he were to step down now. This increasingly bizarre defence is one that he has been relying on for quite a while now to hold the Brown camp at bay, insinuating that - by remaining in office - he is merely carrying out the promise he made to the electorate before the last general election that he would serve a full term.

It ignores the fact that many people who voted for him, myself included, voted not for him but rather for the Labour Party in general; and we had to do so with clothes pegs over our noses such was our revulsion at his Iraq policy.

Blair has transformed this into a vote for him personally as he seriously believes that he saved the Labour Party, an assumption that stands up to no objective analysis. The Tories were so on the ropes that almost anyone would have seen them off.

However, the most incredible part of this whole episode is that, towards the end of his tenure, Blair - the master of spin - is no longer in charge of events. The police are.

Blair cannot control the events that are now swirling around him. Although I personally think it is in Blair's interest that the investigation appears - and that's all I can say as we all really don't know what the police are going to do - appears to be moving towards obstruction of justice as opposed to the original cash for honours question.

As Lord Levy was quoted as saying, there's "only one person can nominate people for honours and it isn't me".

So it rather suits Blair that we are now moving on to the question of cover up, although if there is any suggestion that he was involved in any cover up then it will be time for him to take his final bow.

But one thing is certain, much as we can't guess how this is going to end, the same appears to be true of the Prime Minister. And he'll hate that.

Click title for full article.

tag: Blair, Lord Levy, Cash for Honours