Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Fire Dispute, Iraq, Crime, Asylum, Zimbabwe, 2012 Olympic Games and Economy.
Fire Dispute
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the Deputy Prime Minister would be making a Statement in the Commons today about the fire dispute. He said that we were obviously disappointed that the FBU had decided to continue to press ahead with today’s strike. It appeared that they were not - and never had been - serious about reaching a negotiated settlement. It would also seem that they were more concerned with playing games and tactical manoeuvring than serious negotiation. We believed that the current strike was completely unjustified and unacceptable. It had been called against a background of ongoing discussions at Acas which the FBU had asked for, with the widest terms of reference from Acas agreed by both sides and an offer of an 11% increase over two years. As the Deputy Prime Minister had said yesterday at the Select Committee, this dispute had thus far cost more than £70m. Those costs rose at £1m a day when the army was on standby. It rose by £2.5m a day when the FBU was on strike. Obviously the money to fund that was coming from the taxpayer and had to be found from another part of the Government’s budget since there was no bottomless reserve. In this instance, it was coming from regeneration budgets.
Asked if he was indicating that the Government might invoke powers to ban the dispute, the PMOS cautioned journalists against rushing down that particular route and advised them to wait for Mr Prescott’s Statement. Asked to explain the purpose of the Statement, the PMOS said that the Deputy Minister would want to take the opportunity to update the House on the recent talks between the employers and the FBU.
Questioned as to whether the money that was being used to cover the costs of the fire dispute was coming solely from regeneration programmes, the PMOS said yes. As he understood it, the money was being made available from programme underspends. Asked why it wasn’t coming from contingency reserves, the PMOS said that there was obviously capacity in the ODPM’s budget to make an allocation of this sort. But he underlined that this was neither a risk-free nor a cost-free strike. The FBU had clearly revised its tactics, changing from an eight-day strike before Christmas to a series of two-day strikes post-New Year. The Government had been reflecting on this fact in the light of the decision taken by the FBU yesterday and John Prescott would have something substantive to say to the House today.
Iraq
The PMOS said that the Prime Minister had had a fifteen-minute telephone conversation with John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, this morning as part of the intensification of diplomatic activity following the report by Hans Blix to the UN Security Council yesterday. He would be making further calls to world leaders during the course of the day. In this morning’s call, both Prime Ministers had agreed on the need for full Iraqi compliance with all their obligations set out in Resolution 1441 and in previous Resolutions.
The PMOS advised journalists that the Prime Minister would be travelling to Spain on Thursday for a meeting with Prime Minister Aznar before flying on to the US for a meeting with President Bush. Asked why the Prime Minister was talking to the Australian and Spanish Prime Ministers - in effect preaching to the converted - instead of speaking to President Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder, and whether he was trying to form a ‘fallback coalition of the willing’ if it was decided to take military action against Iraq, the PMOS said that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the Prime Minister might speak to other European leaders. We would brief further on the calls when they happened. Asked why the Prime Minister was making a special stopover in Spain to see Prime Minister Aznar, the PMOS said that the Spanish Prime Minister was an important figure in the EU. The Prime Minister had met Chancellor Schroeder a fortnight ago and would be seeing President Chirac at the Anglo-French Summit on 4 February.
The PMOS said that Jack Straw would be holding an on-camera briefing at the FCO later today where he would set out the unanswered questions which Iraq had to address as Hans Blix had made crystal clear yesterday in his report to the UN - for example, the 6,500 missing bombs which could carry tonnes of chemical agents, the discovery of mustard gas precursor, the question marks about anthrax destruction, missiles with a range beyond 150km, issues relating to U2 flights and the development and weaponisation of VX nerve gas. Following yesterday’s report, there would be an intensification of diplomatic activity, both in advance of the Prime Minister’s visit to Camp David and subsequent to it.
Questioned as to whether Jack Straw would set out whether we were seeking a new deadline for Saddam to comply, the PMOS said that the next stage in the process was a further report to the Security Council on 14 February. However, it was important not to pre-judge the discussions which were taking place at the Security Council today and those which would take place at Camp David at the weekend. At this stage there was no ultimatum and no deadline. We had always wanted the inspectors to be able to do their job properly and for Saddam to be disarmed peacefully. That remained the Government’s position. Whether that could happen, however, was up to Saddam. He knew what he had to do and what would happen if he didn’t. Asked if we were looking to toughen up the inspectors’ mandate in Iraq, the PMOS said that as Hans Blix had made clear yesterday, there were questions which he - and we - wanted answered. Contrary to reports in some parts of the media this morning, we had always highlighted that co-operation was at the core of Resolution 1441. Saddam had engaged in a programme of deceit with the international community for the past twelve years, which was why Resolution 1441 imposed an obligation on him either to show to the inspectors’ satisfaction that he had disarmed or to do so peacefully as part of an UNMOVIC process. Failing that, he would be disarmed by force. No one should be in any doubt that there were a number of serious questions which had been raised by Dr Blix’s report. We would be publishing a document later this afternoon which would underline the questions Dr Blix had posed and also make clear the nature of the threat. We all bandied around the term ‘weapons of mass destruction’ or ‘WMD’. As a result, there was a risk that we could become word-blind - which was why it was important to underline once again the nature of the threat from these weapons and what they could do. Asked whether the document would include new intelligence material, the PMOS said no. It would be a short document based on Dr Blix’s report yesterday. Questioned as to whether we were intending to publish another dossier detailing further evidence of Iraq’s WMD capability, the PMOS said we were not planning to do so at this stage. However, as the Prime Minister had said, we would keep under constant review the information that we were able to share with the British people.
Questioned as to whether the Camp David talks would focus on the possibility of imposing an ultimatum on Saddam, the PMOS said that there were issues to be discussed, including timelines. What was clear was that Saddam had been defying the will of the international community for twelve years. The world’s patience was not infinite. There was still a chance for Saddam to comply with his obligations. Whether he did so - and how - remained a choice for him. However, it would not be his choice forever. Asked the Prime Minister’s view on Dr Blix’s report, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister regarded it as deeply disturbing and it showed that the Iraqis were not serious about disarmament.
Asked whether the Prime Minister would view attempts by France, Russia and China to press for more time for the inspectors as an ‘unreasonable blockage’, the PMOS said that it would not be helpful to pre-empt a discussion that had yet to take place at the Security Council. We had already said that there would be a further report. He drew journalists’ attention to the conclusion of the General Affairs Council in Brussels in yesterday, which, he said, was significant. EU Foreign Ministers, including those from France and Germany, had stated that, "The Resolution gave an unambiguous message that the Iraqi Government has a final opportunity to resolve the crisis peacefully. The Iraqi authorities must, as an imperative, provide the inspectors, without delay, with all additional and complete information on questions raised by the international community". Hans Blix had raised a catalogue of questions. It was now up to Saddam to give the answers. The onus was on Iraq to comply fully with its obligations. He added that in the past, we had seen Iraq offer some small concession in an attempt to string people along. Under the terms of Resolution 1441, they had a duty to comply fully with all their obligations. The questions being posed by UNMOVIC were important and needed to be taken seriously.
Crime
Asked for further details about this morning’s COBRA meeting on street crime which the Prime Minister had chaired this morning, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had remained focussed on the issue, as you would expect. Setting the end of September 2002 as a target date to get street crime under control had not been to imply that the problem would go away after that date. Clearly it wouldn’t and hadn’t. There had been some encouraging trends, but we needed to keep the pressure on. Today’s meeting was part of a monitoring process. Its purpose had been to take stock of the situation.
Asylum
Asked to comment on the Opposition’s proposal to lock up asylum seekers on their arrival in the UK until they had been vetted by the Security Services, the PMOS said that Beverley Hughes would be responding later today. He reminded journalists that around 90 million people passed through the UK’s ports and airports each year. We had to be realistic about whether it was possible - or desirable - to turn Britain into a fortress given the damage that could do to the economy, for example. Terrorists were devious, evil people who would always seek to circumvent whatever systems and structures had been put in place to deter them. We had always underlined the importance of not overstating the linkage between asylum seekers and terrorism. Of course that did not mean that we were not taking the threat seriously wherever it presented itself. We were, as evidenced by the checks on people seeking to claim asylum in this country. They would continue and we would be looking to see whether they could be intensified in any way, but it was important to be realistic and recognise that the best way to address the issue was through intelligence.
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with David Blunkett’s assessment that yesterday’s Sun front page had been racist, the PMOS said that he did not propose to act as a newspaper commentator, primarily because this issue was not about newspapers. It was about a serious problem which the Government had to address. That said, as we had made clear in the past, it was important not to inflame the situation. Put to him that Mr Blunkett had said that newspapers were part of the problem, the PMOS underlined that it was important to accept that there was a serious problem and accept that the Government was putting in place a range of measures to tackle it. In his Frost interview on Sunday the Prime Minister had sent a strong signal that if the current measures were not sufficient we would be prepared to look more fundamentally at the issue. Equally, however, it was incumbent on us all not to inflame the situation.
Asked what the Government was intending to do with the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on Refugees, the PMOS said that the position remained entirely as set out by his colleague yesterday. As the Prime Minister had indicated, we had put in place a whole raft of new measures to tackle the problem - which, it should be noted, was a problem affecting countries across the world. We had to give those measures time to work. No one should doubt the Government’s resolve to deal with the situation and we had said we would look at the issue more fundamentally if the current measures failed to bite in the way we wished them to do.
Asked for a reaction to the view expressed by three ‘doubters’ attending this morning’s NEC meeting that any conflict with Iraq would simply make the problem of asylum seekers a lot worse, the PMOS said that while it was important for people to resist the urge to pre-judge where the issue of Iraq might end up, since conflict was not inevitable. It was nevertheless worthwhile to point out that a large number of Iraqis had already sought asylum in the UK, so a counter argument could in fact be mounted.
Zimbabwe
Asked if the Government was seeking a compromise on Robert Mugabe’s invitation to attend a Franco-African Summit in Paris next month, the PMOS said that because EU Ministers had been unable to reach an agreement on whether to renew the sanctions against Mr Mugabe and his regime at yesterday’s GAC, a discussion at senior representative level would now take place on Thursday. We wanted the sanctions to continue. In the meantime, discussions were ongoing about Mr Mugabe’s travel plans to events proposed by other countries. Questioned about our attempts to get the sanctions renewed, the PMOS said that under current EU rules there had to be unanimity in order for the sanctions to be rolled over. Equally, there had to be unanimity to waive any travel bans. These were the difficult issues which we were trying to address with our European partners. There wasn’t much more he could say about this matter beyond stating that there were a number of other countries who strongly supported the UK’s position at the GAC yesterday.
2012 Olympic Games
Questioned as to whether Tessa Jowell would make a Statement to Parliament on a possible London bid for the 2012 Olympic Games following Cabinet on Thursday, the PMOS said that a decision had not yet been made as to when Ms Jowell would make a Statement. Cabinet was due to discuss the issue substantively on Thursday and we would expect an announcement shortly after that.
Economy
Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about the continuing drop in the stock market and that Gordon Brown’s policies had contributed to it, the PMOS said that it wasn’t our policy to comment in detail on movements in the markets. However, before people looked at this through that particular telescope, it might be helpful to make some general observations. Firstly, the fall in the UK was being mirrored in other markets across Europe and the world. Secondly, the issue was how well placed we were to cope with market volatility in respect of the wider economy. In the UK, the economic fundamentals were sound. We had low inflation, low interest rates and low unemployment. Our ratio of debt to GDP was also low and we were seeing steady and stable growth. That said, we were not being complacent in any way and the FSA was continuing to exercise vigilance, as you would expect. Asked if Gordon Brown was the right person to be in charge of the economy, the PMOS said yes, absolutely.
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