By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 3, 2007

LONDON, Feb. 2 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday he will not resign because of a growing scandal concerning his party's financing and added that "I am not going to beg for my character in front of anyone."

As calls for his resignation have intensified, Blair has said little publicly about a police investigation that has led to the arrests of close aides. But in a BBC radio interview Friday, he spoke in some detail, variously asking for patience and forcefully saying he wouldn't be hounded out of office. "The sensible thing" is to wait until the police finish their investigation, he said. In the meantime, "I am not going to get into a situation where I am pleading for my integrity."

Prime minister for nearly a decade, Blair said last year that he would resign before September. But many people here want him to leave now, as members of his own party publicly admit the damage this scandal is doing to his party.

"I think inevitably when you have this kind of thing going on for months and months, it does have a corrosive effect," Hazel Blears, the Labor Party leader, said in a televised interview.

Former Labor leader Neil Kinnock told reporters it will take years for the political system to recover from the damage the scandal has caused.

"He is no longer casting about for a legacy but trying to avoid leaving under a tremendous cloud," Anthony Howard, a political commentator, said in an interview.

Police have arrested four people from Blair's party on suspicion of involvement in the offering of seats in the House of Lords and other government honors in exchange for cash.

"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 said, noting he was still able to do his job.

There has been noticeable tension between police and the prime minister's office as the case has dragged on -- the first arrest came in July. Blair supporters, for instance, have publicly asked why officers who arrested Ruth Turner, the director of government relations in Downing Street, had to do it in the early morning.

In the interview, Blair urged people not to believe everything "ricocheting around the media" because, he said, it wasn't all true.

Blair said he was determined not to leave office early because of this police inquiry. "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."

No one has been charged with a crime. All four of those arrested have denied wrongdoing.

Blair also said in the interview that he has "tried to do my best over the last 10 years" but that he has made "mistakes along the way." He added: "People can make up their mind about me according to what they think about me. But I know what type of person I am."