Morning press briefing from 11 January 2007
Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Citizen's jury, donations and aircraft carriers
Citizen's Jury
The Prime Minister's Spokesman began by giving the assembled press more details on the Citizen's Jury taking place in Leeds. It would mark the final stage in the consultation on carer's, launched by the Prime Minister in June.
The consultation had seen more than 13,000 hits on the relevant website and carer's had contributed towards 1700 new ideas. The event will play host to 80 carer's, members of the Prime Minister's Standing Commission on Carer's, the Secretary of State for Health and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Care Services. The event was jointly hosted by Carer's UK and chaired by their Chief Executive Imelda Redmond.
Donations
Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to Peter Hain in the last 24 hours, the PMS replied that we did not brief on individual conversations that the Prime Minister had had with his Cabinet colleagues.
Asked if the Prime Minister had full confidence in Peter Hain, the PMS said yes. Asked who was responsible for donations to Mr Hain's campaign, the PMS replied that this was a matter being looked into by the relevant bodies, but as people knew it would be inappropriate for her to comment on party donations.
Put repeatedly that if Mr Hain had breached the Parliamentary rules, it would come under the Ministerial Code, the PMS said it was not for her to make those judgements and that she had nothing to add to what she had already said on this issue. Asked if the Prime Minister was happy that a person in charge of a major spending department was being accused at the very least of financial incompetence, the PMS reiterated that all of these matters were being looked into by the relevant bodies.
Put that there was a new structure for possible breaches of the Ministerial Code, brought into effect as one of the new constitutional innovations by the Prime Minister, the PMS replied that she believed there was a measure related to this in the Governance of Britain document that was published in the summer and she would get back to the journalist with the details.
Asked if someone was looking into whether Mr Hain had breached the Ministerial Code, the PMS said she had no information on that subject. Asked if the Prime Minister would be concerned if the Work and Pensions Secretary had endorsed companies that had made donations to his campaign, the PMS replied that that was a hypothetical question and related to party donations.
Asked if the Prime Minister was confident that Peter Hain could continue doing his job while this issue was being dealt with, the PMS repeated that the Prime Minister had full confidence in Peter Hain.
Asked if there were any plans for the Prime Minister to have a meeting with Mr Hain in the near future, the PMS said that there wasn't any that she was aware of and we wouldn't necessarily brief on meetings that the Prime Minister had with his individual Cabinet colleagues.
Aircraft Carriers
Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about the building of two aircraft carriers in his constituency not going ahead for some months due to Ministry of Defence budget cuts, the PMS said that the MOD had responded to the story this morning, saying there was no suggestion that the programme would not go ahead. The CSR settlement allowed the MOD to proceed with two new aircraft carriers, which would be the largest ships ever operated by the Royal Navy. The legal steps that needed to take place before that happened were also well under way, so there was no suggestion that the programme would not go ahead.
Asked if there would however be a delay in the programme, the PMS said there was nothing in the MOD's response to suggest that.
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