Blair: Set for grilling

In an interview with Jeremy Paxman, the prime minister has faced tough questioning on Iraq, taxes and asylum.

The famously tough BBC interviewer failed to land any killer blows in Wednesday night's exchanges, but there were still several awkward moments for Tony Blair.

The prime minister defended his decision to go to war with Iraq, accepting that it would be an issue in the election.

"This wasn't an easy decision. It was a hard decision. I took the decision I thought was right," he told the BBC.

Blair also confirmed that he had not seen Foreign Office legal advice saying the war would be illegal without a second United Nations resolution.

"I didn't see it. But I had the attorney general's advice," he said.

A question on whether he accepted any responsibility for the suicide of government scientist Dr David Kelly caused the prime minister to pause before answering.

"It was a terrible, terrible thing to have happened," he said.

"I don't believe we had any option, however, but to disclose his name.

"Had we failed to do so, that would have been seen as attempting to conceal something from the committee that was looking into this at the time.

"I feel desperately sorry for his family and the ordeal they were put through."

Third term

The prime minister again insisted he would stand for a full third term, denying there was a deal to hand over the top job to chancellor Gordon Brown.

And Blair insisted there was still a full policy agenda for the next parliament, if he is re-elected.

"I still think we have got things to do," he said.

"The irony of this job is that you are less popular as you go on but, in some ways, you are better equipped to do the job.

"I feel we are just really poised on the health service, education reform, a lot of the stuff we are doing on law and order...

"There's masses for me to do and that's what gets me up in the morning. I've set a limit for my time... and then it's for somebody else to take on the baton and run with it.

"But I still feel there's things we've got to do and I think we can accelerate the change, drive it faster in a third term."

Asylum

In the Newsnight Special, Blair refused to give an estimate for the number of failed asylum seekers remaining in the UK.

"I can't be sure of the numbers of people who are illegals in this country, for the same reason that the previous government couldn't," he said.

"What I can say is that the asylum system has been toughened up, tightened up, hugely.

"According to the UN Commission for Refugees the asylum figures have fallen by more than half over the past two or three years."

Blair added that it was "pointless speculating" about the number still in the country.

"For the reason the previous government gave, you cannot determine specifically how many people are here illegally," he insisted.

Taxes

Quizzed on whether Labour would put up taxes after the election, Blair insisted that "the spending proposals we have are adequately catered for by the tax plans we have got".

He also moved to effectively rule out adopting a local income tax system to replace the council tax.

"We have a review into the council tax and what's the right way to replace it, so you can't foreclose options,"he said.

"But for me the local income tax has always been a problem. It's all very well for the Lib Dems to say get rid of the council tax and everyone says that's fantastic.

"But if you are a two-earner or three-earner household, you are going to pay a lot more money.

"We've got a review, so I can't start closing everything off. But personally... I think there are big problems with a local income tax."