Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Cabinet, Proms, Zimbabwe, ID cards, Chair of Business Council and Russia
Cabinet
The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) began by telling assembled journalists that Cabinet met for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes this morning. The main items of discussion were; where we were on ID cards ahead of Jacqui Smith’s speech on Thursday and a presentation from Ruth Kelly on roads and congestions, outlining some of the main themes of her speech this morning.
Proms
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Margaret Hodge that the Proms were narrow and lacked common British values, the PMS replied that, as DCMS had been saying this morning, this was not meant to be an attack on the Proms. DCMS had also stated that, in the view of Margaret Hodge, the Proms were a wonderful, democratic and quintessentially British institution, which did a fantastic job to promote serious culture to millions of people; this was a view the Prime Minister very much agreed with.
Put repeatedly that that was not what Margaret Hodge had said in the article, the PMS said that there was an issue in regards to how her comments had been interpreted and he did not want to put words into her mouth; DCMS had made clear that she supported the Proms, as did the Prime Minister. We recognised the fact that the Proms, with the BBC, had done a good job in recent years in broadening audience participation.
Zimbabwe
Asked for the Prime Minister’s position regarding the Zimbabwean cricket team and other Zimbabwean sporting teams, the PMS replied that, in regards to cricket, we continued to discuss the matter of Zimbabwe with the English Cricket Board (ECB) as it was a matter for the English cricketing authorities; they ultimately decided whether England would play Zimbabwe or not, but they knew our views on the matter. In regards to the broader issue, it was not the case that the Prime Minister was considering a blanket ban on all Zimbabwe sportspeople and we were slightly surprised at the suggestion of that this morning.
Asked to elaborate on the Prime Minister’s views regarding the Zimbabwean cricket team, the PMS replied that our position was that if the ECB decided that they wanted to ban Zimbabwe, then that would be a decision which we would support.
Put that we had been in this position before and that the ECB needed backing from the Government, the PMS replied that it was ultimately a decision for them; it was for them to decide whether England should play Zimbabwe or not. However, they were aware of our position concerning this.
Asked repeatedly if the Prime Minister would consider any measures less than a blanket ban, the PMS said that all sorts of hypotheticals could be put to him but that the story this morning was ahead of itself; we had not recognised the depiction of the position as set out in the reports this morning. The most pressing issue coming up was the issue relating to the cricket tour.
Asked if there could be a one-off ban for cricket, the PMS replied that all of these issues would be addressed at the appropriate time. These were decisions that ultimately had to be made by the ECB; it was not helpful to get into all sorts of hypothetical scenarios which were still some way down the line.
ID Cards
Asked where the Government was in regards to ID Cards, the PMS replied that it was best to wait for Jacqui Smith’s speech on Thursday which would set out the latest state of play.
Asked for more information on the ID Cards discussion at Cabinet this morning, the PMS said that Jacqui Smith would set out the position on Thursday and it was best to wait for that.
Asked if the position on ID Cards was somewhat different to the current one, the PMS said it was important for people not to get too far ahead of themselves; what Jacqui Smith would be doing on Thursday was providing a bit more detail on the implementation.
Chair of Business Council
Asked for the Prime Minister’s thoughts regarding the Chair of the Business Council’s comments on tax, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister very much welcomed the role of the Business Council and it was the role of people on that Business Council to express their views on any issues that they faced. Obviously tax was a matter for the Treasury and the Chancellor; the Budget was coming next week, but due to the reforms that we had made to the tax and regulatory regime, we had one of the lowest corporation tax rates in the G7 and we continued to believe that the UK was well-placed to benefit from the opportunities of globalisation.
Russia
Asked if the Prime Minister had drawn attention to the Litvinenko case in his letter to the new President if Russia and what the current position was, the PMS replied that the current position was that we had set out a very detailed dossier to the Russians, setting out the case for the extradition of Mr Lugovoy. We did not believe that we had received a satisfactory degree of cooperation on this matter and that remained the position.
Asked if the Prime Minister had had any response from the President, the PMS said not that he was aware of.
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