Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Cabinet, Kate Hoey, BBC breakfast, First Minister/Grangemouth, cannabis and misc
Cabinet
The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) started by telling journalists that Cabinet had met this morning for just over an hour. David Miliband gave an update on Zimbabwe and Des Browne gave an update on Kosovo. They spent most of Cabinet discussing the Government’s future legislative programme.
Asked for more information on what was said at Cabinet about Zimbabwe and the future legislative programme, the PMS replied that it had been a general discussion about the Government’s future legislative priorities, so there was not much more to be said on that at this point. The discussion on Zimbabwe had been more of an update on the situation and particularly focused on the need to keep up the international pressure on Mr Mugabe and, as journalists knew, there would be a discussion in the UN Security Council on Zimbabwe today.
Asked if the issue of 42 days had come up as part of the discussion on the Government’s future legislative priorities, the PMS said it had not as it had been a discussion on the priorities for the next Queen’s Speech.
Kate Hoey
Asked if the Prime Minister regarded it as an act of treachery that Kate Hoey had pledged her allegiance to Boris Johnson, the PMS replied that that was not a question for him; it was best directed to the PMS’s political colleague.
Asked, in more general terms, if the Prime Minister agreed with cross-party cooperation, the PMS said that he could see where the journalist was going with this question and that it was a question about the London Mayoral elections. In reply to this the PMS said that questions on the relationship between the Prime Minister and individual Labour MPs were not really for him to answer.
BBC Breakfast
Asked what meetings the Prime Minister had been carrying out this morning at around 8am when he had been invited onto BBC Breakfast, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had been doing quite a lot of media recently and that this morning he had had a breakfast meeting with representatives of creative industries. He went on to say that a full cast list of that meeting could be sent to journalists. This was a sector of the economy that the Prime Minister attached importance too because they represented a significant future growth area for the British economy and prosperity in jobs.
Put that when Harriet Harman had been asked this morning why she was appearing on BBC Breakfast rather than the Prime Minister she had said it was because the Prime Minister was meeting other Ministers, the PMS said that there were Ministers at the meeting as well and that a cast list would be made available. The PMS went on to say that last time he checked the Prime Minister was accountable to Parliament and not to individual TV programmes, but it was always good to have an opportunity to clarify that.
First Minister/Grangemouth
Asked if the Prime Minister had met with the First Minister yesterday, the PMS said that he had; they met last night in the House of Commons for about 20 minutes. It had been a private meeting between just the two of them and their discussion had been on Grangemouth.
Asked for details of the discussion and if anything had come out of it, the PMS said that the meeting had been private and that they had discussed the situation at Grangemouth. As we had said yesterday, John Hutton had been in regular contact with the First Minister in recent days and was in Scotland today, so there had been very good cooperation between the UK Government and the Scottish Executive; the meeting with the First Minister yesterday was a further example of that.
Asked if there would be any further talks between the Prime Minister and the First Minister, the PMS said that he was sure that there would be lots of opportunities for the UK Government to continue to work closely and constructively with the Scottish Executive in the weeks, months and years ahead.
Asked to confirm that Grangemouth had been the only topic of conversation between the Prime Minister and the First Minister at their meeting, the PMS said that that was his understanding and that there had only been the two of them in the room throughout the meeting.
Asked if the Prime Minister had had personal talks with the union leadership or management involved with the Grangemouth dispute, the PMS said that he did not want to get into exactly who the Prime Minister had been speaking to but that John Hutton had been playing a very hands-on role, as reflected in the fact that he was going to Scotland today for further discussions.
Put that the First Minister had said yesterday that if this dispute were to continue then it would be extremely damaging to the economy, the PMS said that we would certainly share the view that it was very important that the sides got back to the negotiating table and find a resolution to this.
Cannabis
Asked if the Prime Minister believed that there was another way of sending the strong signal that cannabis is unacceptable other than reclassifying it, the PMS said that we had now received the report from the Advisory Council and that we had a requirement to take into account their views, as well as the views of others. As was said yesterday, people should not anticipate that an announcement would happen this week. It was best to wait for a formal announcement to be made before getting into further discussions.
Asked what other ways the Prime Minister thought a strong signal could be sent, the PMS said that he could see where the journalist was trying to lead him and that when we were in a position to make an announcement on the reclassification of cannabis then we would do so. The position at the moment was that we had just received the report from the Advisory Committee and that was something that would need to be considered.
Put repeatedly that the Prime Minister had used the word "lethal" to describe the use of cannabis and asked if there were examples of cannabis being lethal, the PMS said that nobody was disputing the potential dangerous impacts of cannabis and that that was why cannabis was an illegal drug. When the Government was in a position to respond to the report from the Advisory Committee, we would do that in a proper and orderly way.
Misc
Asked for the Prime Minister’s reaction to what Mervyn King had been saying to the Treasury Select Committee this morning about the likelihood that inflation could reach 3% or higher, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister did not have a specific reaction to that, not least because he had been in Cabinet this morning.
Asked if the Prime Minister was going to make any more representations to OPEC, the PMS said that we would continue to make our views known and that we would continue to raise this with our G8 partners. The issues of commodity prices and food prices were sure to be important issues of discussion at and in advance of the G8 Summit in July.
Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about the affect the credit crunch was having on ordinary families at the moment or was he concerned that things could get worse, the PMS replied that this was a difficult period for the world economy; we had set out our economic forecasts in the Budget and we would do our next comprehensive one in the Pre-Budget Report, so we were not going to provide interim updates. This was a difficult period and people were concerned about the impacts on them and that was why the Government was determined to take action wherever it could to steer the country through this difficult period and that we had seen that with the announcement of the £50 billion injection of liquidity from the Bank of England last week.
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