Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Strikes, Prime Minister’s speech, MP’s expenses, 42 days and misc
Strikes
Put that Unison had said that they were ready to call for a summer of strikes, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Prime Minister’s position on this was that of course he respected the very good work that many people in the public sector did and acknowledged that it was important that we value the work that many hard working nurses and healthcare workers for example do. However it was also very important that we maintain our discipline when it came to public sector pay.
The difficult decisions we had taken on public sector pay in recent years has meant that the Bank of England had been able to reduce interest rates on a number of occasions in recent months. Put that Unison should not run away with the idea that the Prime Minister was in a weakened position, the PMS replied not at all.
Prime Minister’s Speech
Asked if the Prime Minister would address the issue of Scottish independence in his speech on Saturday, the PMS replied that it would not be a speech on Scotland particularly. Asked if he would discuss his own religious beliefs, the PMS advised people to wait until tomorrow, but when speaking to a Church of Scotland audience, it would be surprising if he did not make some reference to his own upbringing. However, it had not been the Prime Minister’s habit to talk about his own individual religious views.
Asked if people should read anything into the fact that it was almost 20 years to the day that Margaret Thatcher had made her controversial speech to the same audience, the PMS said no.
MP’s Expenses
Asked if the Prime Minister was happy for taxpayer’s money to be spent on stopping the publication of MP’s expenses, the PMS replied that as we had always made clear, this was a matter for the House authorities. The Prime Minister had made clear that he was relaxed about the disclosure of his expense details, but this was a process being led by, and was a matter for the House authorities.
Asked if the Prime Minister was minded to unilaterally publish his expense details to show that he was relaxed, the PMS said it was the Prime Minister’s view that it was right that these matters were dealt with by the House authorities.
Asked how the Prime Minister felt about his address being published, the PMS said that of course there were security implications, but these were really matters for the House authorities. The PMS reiterated that the Prime Minister was relaxed about the disclosure of his expense details, but on issues of security, it was best that the experts on security were allowed to give their view.
42 Days
Asked if it was the case that the Prime Minister had changed his mind and would actually prefer not to lose the vote, the PMS said it was the Prime Minister’s view and the Home Secretary’s view that there could be no question on any compromise over 42 days. They were both strongly of the view that it was necessary to put in place legislation on a precautionary basis, to enable terror suspects to be held for more than the current 28-day limit.
This was the right thing to do to protect the public and it reflected the increasing complexity of terror trials. As the Prime Minister himself had said, there was a consensus that it may be necessary to hold individuals beyond 28 days, but the debate was about exactly what mechanisms were in place, to enable you to do that.
The Government had published its very detailed proposals on what the specific judicial and parliamentary mechanisms might be and that’s what was currently being considered by Parliament.
Asked repeatedly if the package from last November was still the package that was going to be voted on or was there going to be changes, the PMS replied that the package that was on the table was the package that was on the table. The key issue for the Prime Minister was that we did introduce legislation that enabled people to be held if necessary beyond 28 days.
Asked if he recognised the specific suggestions in the Guardian, such as bringing down the period of parliamentary oversight, the PMS said he did not want to get into specifics. The Government had put forward its proposals and these were now being considered by Parliament and in due course would be voted on by Parliament. The key point from our point of view was that we did think there was a consensus on the need to hold people beyond 28 days and we thought the differences between the various parties was much less than was sometimes made out to be.
Put that there had been a suggestion that the extension from 28 days to 42 days would involve tagging or a bail system, the PMS replied that we had made clear at the time that that was not a proposal that had ever been considered in any serious way by the Home Secretary.
Misc
Asked if the Prime Minister listened to the Bee Gees every day, the PMS said the Prime Minister listened to a wide range of music.
Asked about the extra £200million of funding for the Ministry of Defence and whether it was coming from outside the MoD or from within, the PMS said that as the Treasury had been making clear in response to enquiries, what we were talking about in this case was flexibility within the settlement to make the necessary medium-term changes we needed to make.
Asked what the Prime Minister thought of the decision by Willie Walsh to waive his bonus this year, the PMS said that the Prime Minister thought it was a matter for Willie Walsh.
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