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Blair rejects quit call

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday he would not give in to pressure to quit over the cash-for-peerages row saying his critics would have to "put up with me a bit longer.''

Speaking to the BBC a day after it was revealed that he had been questioned a second time by police over his role in the alleged scandal, Mr. Blair said he intended to "get on with the job'' adding: "You will have to put up with me for a bit longer."

He declined to be drawn into details of the investigations that Labour Party offered peerages to rich businessmen in return for secret donations to the party's election fund in 2005.

"I think it's got to run its course over the next few weeks. I hope it will be wound up and let's see where we are then, and in the meantime despite what people may think, I get on with the job," he said.

His remarks came amid growing calls from Opposition leaders and many of his own party figures to hasten his planned departure from Downing Street in view of the "damage'' the row was doing to the party and the Government.

"This is a Prime Minister treading water while his Cabinet moves on. There is resignation in his voice. He should go sooner rather than later," said Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Last week, Mr. Blair's personal friend and party's chief fundraiser Lord Levy was arrested a second time in connection with the police inquiry, and last month a senior Downing Street official Ruth Turner was arrested on "suspicion of perverting the course of justice.''

None has been charged and both deny any wrongdoing.

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