Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Northern Ireland, New Parliamentary Arrangements, Iraq, NHS, Israel/Palestinian Conference, Jamaica and War on Terror.
Northern Ireland
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the Prime Minister would be seeing Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness this afternoon following his meeting yesterday with David Trimble. These meetings were part of the ongoing contacts with the main parties involved in the Northern Ireland peace process.
New Parliamentary Arrangements
Asked how the Prime Minister’s day had changed given PMQs on Wednesdays would now be taking place at midday rather than 3pm, the PMOS said that while some adjustments had been made to accommodate the new time, nothing much had changed. Asked to help the journalists out, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister’s first meeting today had been at 8am. As usual, he would have begun preparing for PMQs on Tuesday. Questioned as to whether the Prime Minister’s diary had been cleared in order to allow him extra time to prepare for PMQs, the PMOS pointed out that even when PMQs had taken place at 3pm the Prime Minister’s engagements on Wednesday mornings had always been relatively light. Questioned as to whether Downing Street officials had had to begin their working day even earlier as a result of the new time for PMQs, the PMOS said he thought that the substance of what was said at PMQs was more important than process, which journalists had no doubt worked out by now was pretty dull and unremarkable. Part of the Prime Minister’s job was to do PMQs, and as of today he would be doing it three hours earlier. It had not resulted in great upheaval in any of our lives.
Iraq
Asked if the Prime Minister was pleased that Geoff Hoon was in Turkey and Jack Straw was a long way away in Singapore today following reports of a disagreement between the two on the odds of a war against Iraq, the PMOS said that for all the stuff which had been written about this matter in today’s papers, he would simply say that he did not buy into the idea that the Government was anything other than 100% united around this issue. That was the reality of the situation. There were no divisions whatsoever. All Ministers were 100% united around the Government policy, namely the disarmament of Saddam Hussein, going down the UN route and ensuring that the diplomatic activity was backed by the credible threat of force. Asked if that meant that the Government was united 60-40 against a war on Iraq, the PMOS said that he had no intention of getting drawn into a discussion about this issue again. It had already been dealt with and we had nothing further to add to what had been said about it. Put to him that it was the Foreign Secretary who had stated that the odds were 60-40 against military action, the PMOS said that if there was one thing people could be sure about it was that it was a ‘racing certainty’ that Saddam Hussein would be disarmed of his weapons of mass destruction (WMD). How that might happen was up to him to decide. We were continuing to move forward through the UN route. As Ministers had stressed from the outset, war was not inevitable. Nevertheless, it was important for us to make prudent contingency preparations because, as had been demonstrated thus far, the one thing which Saddam Hussein responded to was the threat of force. And it was precisely because of that that the weapons inspectors had been able to return to Iraq. Asked if the Government endorse ‘in any sense’ the 60-40 odds which had been suggested, the PMOS repeated that war was not inevitable. However, it was 100% certain that Saddam Hussein would be disarmed.
Asked if he would agree that it was unusual for a senior Cabinet Minister to say that the comments made by another senior Cabinet Minister were ‘unhelpful’, the PMOS said that while political correspondents appeared to have made much of what people had been saying over the last day or so, no one in Downing Street or any other part of Government was getting excited about it. What mattered was that the Government had a settled policy - which it did - and that Ministers were united around it - which they were. The idea that the MoD and FCO were pursing different agendas was simply not true. The FCO obviously had a role to play in pursuing the diplomatic track and the MoD was responsible for the military.
Questioned about the deployment of the RAF to the Gulf, the PMOS said that as Geoff Hoon had indicated in his Statement to the House yesterday, prudent military preparations were continuing and further announcements were likely to be made in the coming weeks. Asked why Geoff Hoon had ‘forgotten’ to mention yesterday that 14 jetfighters were being deployed to the Gulf as was being reported today, the PMOS said Mr Hoon had made clear in his Statement that there were likely to be further announcements in due course. The MoD would make them as and when it was appropriate to do so.
Asked if the Prime Minister would be happy for the weapons inspections to continue indefinitely, the PMOS said that as far as he was aware, no endpoint had been set. There was a UN mandate to enable the inspectors to carry out their work, to allow them access to wherever they wanted to go in Iraq and to interview whoever they wanted to interview wherever they wished to do so. As part of that process, certain timelines had been set for the Head of the weapons inspectors, Hans Blix, to brief the UN Security Council. He was due to give an update tomorrow and would also give a full report on progress on 27 January. Asked how crucial the 27 January ‘deadline’ was, the PMOS said that the British Government did not consider this date to be a deadline. He pointed out that Hans Blix’s report to the UN Security Council on 27 January was set out in Resolution 1441 as part of the ongoing process.
NHS
Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about the problems in the NHS which had been highlighted in a Delivery Unit report by Michael Barber, the PMOS said that it was not our policy to comment on leaked documents. That said, it was important to put this story into context. The Delivery Unit had been set up to ask difficult questions and to test and scrutinise policy. Today’s leaked report showed that the Delivery Unit was doing its job. Public services as important as the NHS were not reformed by sending self-congratulatory messages across Whitehall. It was done by asking difficult questions, by constantly testing policy and recognising that there were real issues which had to be grasped. The fact that the Delivery Unit and the Department of Health had discussions like this should be seen as a sign of strength rather than weakness. It was also indicative of a mature relationship. The Prime Minister believed that there was a growing acknowledgement - both inside and outside the NHS - that change was happening on the ground and that improvements were being made. For example, 300,000 more operations a year were now taking place compared to 1997; there were now 39,000 more nurses and 5,000 more specialists; 5 million calls were being made to NHS Direct; there were now 1,800 more general and acute beds. Alongside this huge increase in capacity, we were devolving money to the frontline with the establishment of Primary Care Trusts. The first foundation hospitals were also coming on stream. Clearly there was a big programme of change. The Prime Minister remained firmly of the belief that Alan Milburn was doing an excellent job. He was a first-class Health Secretary who was driving through a big programme of change along with the million health workers in the NHS who did a fine job day-in day-out.
Asked if the Government would agree with the report’s apparent suggestion that changes would be necessary to ensure that the money got through to the areas where it was most needed, the PMOS said the report showed that the Government was not being complacent about the extra money it was putting in. We recognised that it was not a question of putting in extra investment without tying it to reform. On the contrary. We needed more reform, not less. We wanted to see an increase in diagnostic and treatment centres for example. We wanted to devolve more power to the frontline. Clearly there was a big job to do and we were getting on in doing it. The fact that the Delivery Unit was having a discussion with the Department of Health about these matters was a sign of the Government’s collective determination to see improvements being made. Record investment was going into the NHS. It was therefore vital to get the most out of it. Asked where we were on the scale of Michael Barber’s ‘triggers of concern’ and if we had yet reached the point where the Prime Minister thought it necessary to become personally involved, the PMOS said that he hadn’t seen a ‘traffic light readout’ of all the relevant issues. The Prime Minister was constantly involved in health matters. That said, there was a genuine belief that we were seeing improvements in the NHS. We had never pretended that everything was perfect. Clearly it wasn’t and we acknowledged that there was a big job to be done. However, we remained firmly of the view that we were moving in the right direction with our programme of investment and reform.
Israel/Palestinian Conference
Asked about the status of negotiations with Israel concerning the attendance of representatives at the Palestinian conference, the PMOS said that the British Ambassador to Israel, Sherard Cowper-Coles, had only just returned to Israel following his attendance yesterday at the Leadership conference for all UK Ambassadors. He would personally be presenting a letter from the Prime Minister to Prime Minister Sharon this afternoon. In the meantime, we were continuing to make preparations for the meeting because we believed it was important. The reform of the Palestinian Authority was something which the Israeli Government itself had been calling for.
Asked whether the British Government had been in contact with the US Administration to request their backing in persuading the Israeli Government to lift their travel ban on Palestinian delegates, the PMOS said that we had discussed the issue with some of our allies. However, what was most important was the contact we were having with the Israel Government itself. Asked if he would agree that the US’s involvement in this matter could be considered a ‘test-case’ following the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday in which he had said that he would like to see the US continuing to broaden their agenda, the PMOS said that it was important to wait for the Israeli Prime Minister’s response to the Prime Minister’s letter. The Prime Minister was committed to seeing progress being made in the Middle East. We had always said that President’s Bush proposal of a two-state solution, which he had put forward in the summer, was highly significant. The Quartet talks on this issue were continuing. It was also important to recognise that Israel was due to hold elections later this month, which meant that discussion relating to wider political progress was more difficult at the current time.
Questioned about the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Israeli Opposition Leader, Amram Mitzna, tomorrow, the PMOS said that it was not unusual for the Prime Minister to meet Opposition Leaders from different countries, whatever their political backgrounds, before elections. For example, he had met Edmund Stoiber prior to the German elections a few months ago.
Jamaica
Asked if the Jamaican Government had issued a formal protest about our plans to make it a requirement for all Jamaican nationals to obtain a visa before entering the UK, the PMOS said not as far as he was aware. The idea behind the visa requirement was to help prevent serious delays at UK Immigration Control for people arriving on Jamaican flights. This would make it easier for genuine Jamaican visitors to come to the UK. Over Christmas, for example, many flights had taken as long as three hours to clear as a result of a large number of Jamaican nationals being refused entry at ports.
War on Terror
Asked whether security around the Prime Minister had been stepped up following the discovery of Ricin at premises in Wood Green, the PMOS said that we never commented on the Prime Minister’s security arrangements for obvious reasons. Questioned further, the PMOS said that yesterday’s announcement demonstrated what we had been saying for months - that there was a continuing threat from international terrorism. A mass of intelligence material was passing across Ministers’ desks. That had to be analysed and acted upon if necessary. The arrests announced yesterday and the Ricin find in Wood Green showed the need for continual vigilance. The British public had long experience of the threat of terrorism and its character had remained strong in what were clearly testing times. We believed that the public understood that there was a threat and that was a need to be vigilant. Equally, they understood the need not to do the terrorists’ job for them.
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