British Home Secretary Charles Clarke offered to resign after finding out over 1,000 foreign prisoners had been freed without being considered for deportation as they should have been.
Asked about the debacle on BBC Radio, Mr Clarke said he had spoken to Prime Minister Tony Blair about it.
"I told him I was prepared to resign if he thought it was right and he said he didn't think it was right," Mr Clarke said.
Asked if he would survive the incident, Mr Clarke said: "I hope so, and I hope that I'll be able to make the changes which I think the people expect me to bring into effect."
The 1,023 convicted criminals, who included murders, rapists and paedophiles, were released over the past seven years.
All had served their terms and were entitled to release, but should, under prison regulations, have been considered for deportation before they were freed.
Around 160 of them were subject to specific orders from British courts which recommended their removal from Britain.
Mr Clarke has described the administrative error as "a shocking state of affairs" and vowed to remedy it.
Conservative politicians have so far stopped short of calling for Clarke's head, although Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said his position was becoming untenable. "He is not in control of his own department," Mr Davis told Sky News.
"I cannot think of an answer that will get him off the hook."