Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Leadership issue, Tanzanian President, State of the Union, Policy Review, Defence Training Review, BBC Licence Fee, “New, New Labour” and PM’s newspapers
Leadership Issue
Asked that given the Prime Minister’s words this morning, could it be assumed that he would be staying until June, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that the Prime Minister had actually said he was not going to comment further, he would also keep to that rule. Put to him that the when the Prime Minister had been asked whether he would be attending the European Conference in June, he had replied ‘of course’, the PMOS replied that he would not comment further and would let the Prime Minister’s words speak for themselves.
Tanzanian President
Asked what was on the agenda for the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Tanzanian President, the PMOS replied that a wide range of issues would be discussed and that he would brief after.
State of the Union
Asked that given the Prime Minister’s “equivocal” support for the Union this morning, what would he be doing personally to celebrate or mark the event, the PMOS confirmed that the reporter was being ironic and then pointed the journalist to what the Prime Minster had said earlier. Rather than fireworks or other forms of celebration, the Prime Minister felt that his main contribution would be to put forward the argument for the Union, which he did forcibly earlier today.
Asked again whether the Prime Minister would be celebrating, the PMOS replied that he would mark the occasion no doubt in his own way. He added that the Prime Minister’s main argument was on the benefits of the Union, in terms of the shared relationships between families north and south of the border and in terms of our shared interests, whether these were security, or Europe, or other benefits. The scale of the United Kingdom as a whole was also an advantage that would not be there if the Union was broken up. Asked if he was saying that England’s position on the world stage would be diminished by no longer being part of the UK, the PMOS replied that he did not want to get into a hypothetical situation, but there were advantages in the United Kingdom speaking as a whole. At the same time, what devolution allowed Scotland to do was to look after those matters that were specifically Scottish.
Asked if the only actual celebration was Jack McConnell’s party for the £2 coin tomorrow, and would the Prime Minister be attending, the PMOS replying that this event was being held here today and would be hosted by Jack Straw and Douglas Alexander. He did not think that the diary would allow the Prime Minister to attend.
BAe
Asked what the Prime Minister had meant when he said that some of the people who were covering the BAe story had an agenda, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister thought that some people were hostile to the defence industry, and were hostile to that type of contract. But the Prime Minister believed that it was in Britain’s national interest.
Asked to clarify what the Prime Minister had meant when he said earlier that the decision was backed by the entire system and did this include the intelligence and security services, the PMOS said that he would not talk for the security services but he did understand that they would be clarifying their position later this afternoon. What the Prime Minister had meant was that the advice he had received was unequivocal in its message. The Attorney General had also said that in his view the chances of a prosecution were not high.
Asked to clarify what the Prime Minister had said earlier today when he said he was not aware of any unhappiness from MI6, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister quite rightly was not going to comment on information he received from the intelligence agencies, but he was trying to indicate that in his view the Guardian story was wrong.
Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned that one of Britain’s largest companies and arms manufacturers seemed to be mired in allegations not just with the Saudis, but with the story yesterday about a military radar deal with the Tanzanians, the PMOS replied that one had to be careful to differentiate between allegations and proof of wrong doing. Asked whether the Prime Minister was concerned by the damage to BAe’s image, the PMOS again replied that one should be very wary of building a general argument on what were just allegations.
Asked if there was a danger that an impression was being created that this was a bit of real politik which would also explain why we did business with the Saudis who many considered as an unsavourily regime in its own right, the PMOS referred the journalist to what the Attorney General had said about the chances of a prosecution, and in general terms referred him to the role that Saudi Arabia had played in terms of helping the UK in terms of intelligence for example, and thirdly pointed him to what the Prime Minister had said on many occasions about his desire to see democracy extended in Saudi Arabia as well as the rest of the Middle East.
Policy Review
Asked if there was anything in particular worth reading in the Policy Review documents and shown reams of paper by the Daily Telegraph reporter that he had just printed off the Cabinet Office website, the PMOS replied that it would ruin the entire point if he was to pre-judge the content, so the pleasure was all the reporters.
Defence Training Review
Asked to confirm that Des Browne would be announcing the Defence Training Review tomorrow, the PMOS replied that he could confirm.
BBC Licence Fee
Asked to confirm if a decision on the BBC licence fee would be made on Thursday, the PMOS replied that he was not confirming anything about the BBC licence fee.
“New New Labour”
Asked by the BBC if the Prime Minister had invented a new party this morning “New New Labour”, the PMOS replied that this would take him into party politics and whether this was new, new new, or old politics, he would refuse to go there.
Prime Minister’s Newspapers
Asked if the Prime Minister really did not read the newspapers except once a month when preparing for his press conference, the PMOS replied that this was private business for the Prime Minister. He added that he got paid to read them for the Prime Minister and break the bad news to him. Asked if this meant that the Prime Minister just read the digest, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister would be aware of the content, whether he wished to be so, or not!
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