Tony Blair told Britain "you will have to put up with me for a bit longer" today in a wide-ranging interview that culminated in a stubborn defence of his record as Prime Minister.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme the day after Downing Street revealed that he had been questioned for the second time in the police investigation involving the alleged sale of political honours that has overshadowed his final months in office, Mr Blair said he would not step down until he had finished "certain things".

Despite near consensus in Westminster that Mr Blair will make way for Gordon Brown to become Prime Minister in the early summer, he has repeatedly refused to confirm a departure date.

And this morning, he fended off suggestions that he should resign to end the damaging spectacle of police interviews and arrests that have dogged Downing Street since Scotland Yard launched its inquiry into secret loans to the Labour party 11 months ago. The Prime Minister's personal fundraiser, Lord Levy, was arrested for the second time this week.

"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," said Mr Blair, adding that it would not help if he resigned.

"It’s not a very democratic way to decide who is the Prime Minister or not. I have said that I will stand down this Parliament, but I have also said I want to conclude certain things and finish certain things... for example the health service reforms that we are engaged in at the moment."

"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 will have to put up with me for a bit longer."

Asked whether he believed that the public perception of him had changed since he said was considered "a pretty straight kind of guy" by most people in 1997, Mr Blair replied that his premiership had made him a different person.

"I had the same thing put to me during the course of the last election, when people were calling me a liar and a war criminal and so on," he said. "Maybe this is how I have changed over the years as well. I said then, during the election campaign, and I would say now, I am not going to beg for my character in front of anyone.

"People can make up their mind about me, according to what they think about me, but I know what type of person I am. And I am not going to get into a situation where I am pleading for my integrity, not even actually in front of the public, even though I obviously have a deep respect for the British people and it has been an honour and a privilege to lead them."

Later he added: "When I came to office as the leader of the Opposition I liked to be liked, and I think most people do like to be liked... But you realise after a time that you can't please all the people all the time. In fact, I sometimes think it would be good if I could please some of the people some of the time.

"But you realise ultimately that you have a choice as a political leader — sort of bend whichever which way and go with the prevailing wisdom or you try and do what you think is right and hold to it. Now in the end people will make the judgment they've got to make."

Challenged over Labour's record — which has left the NHS in the throes of unhappy reform despite massive investment and a Home Office still two-and-a-half years away from functioning properly — Mr Blair admitted mistakes and work to do — above all to improve the prospects of the very poor — but offered a robust defence of his ten years in power.

He said Britain's "economic stability is dealt with"; that the NHS "definitively better than it was ten years ago" and said he was proud to have lifted 2 million pensioners out of acute hardship. "I look back over the ten years and I think if you'd actually told me these were the facts of the country in 2007, I think I would have bitten your arm off for that. But anyway, we'll see."

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