British Prime Minister Tony Blair is likely to stand down early if charges are brought in the cash-for-honors affair against any of his key aides, including Ruth Turner, arrested on Friday on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
Ministers said they were certain Blair would not seek to stay until his planned departure date of June or July if any of his immediate entourage were charged.
One senior Labour minister told the Guardian: "[Blair] knows he would need to do the right thing for the party."
Senior ministers said Blair remained convinced of Turner's innocence and doubted that the police had -- as reported at the weekend -- hacked into No. 10 Downing Street's computers to show that she and other Downing Street aides had not been co-operating with the inquiry team.
But while any decision to lay charges would not necessarily lead to convictions, it would represent a dramatic raising of the stakes and undermine Downing Street's suggestions that the investigation is based on a bogus interpretation of the law. The minister added that if anyone were charged it might become impossible to govern.
"The focus would drift away from what he is trying to do," the minister said.
It has been previously reported that the police had commissioned advice from computer experts in an effort to find deleted e-mails or computer records.
In an attempt to ease the tension between No. 10 and the police over the manner of Turner's arrest, the lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, said it would be best if the government remained silent. Pressed on the subject, he told the BBC: "I think we should just stay out of it."
But officials were still arguing, privately and publicly, that police had acted in an unnecessary way by arriving at Turner's front door at 6.30am with four officers determined to search her home.
Turner's friends said she and her lawyers had cooperated fully with the inquiry. If no charges are brought at the end of this year-long investigation, some senior Labour figures intend to voice their views on the police behavior in the strongest terms.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said at the weekend she was "slightly bewildered" by the police's behavior and former home secretary David Blunkett again questioned the police's tactics.
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