Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Draft Legislative programme, Frank Field comments, Embryology Bill, Dalai Lama, President Medvedev, Burma and misc
Draft Legislative Programme
Asked if the Draft Legislative Programme would come in the form of a Written Statement to the House, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that that was the anticipation.
Asked what the highlights might be, the PMS replied that when Mr Brown became Prime Minister he made it clear that in future, rather than the Government’s legislative programme being announced without any prior consultation, there would be an opportunity for people to be able to comment and respond to the Government’s draft proposals.
Last July, the Government published its draft legislative proposals and a draft list of bills for the next session. Because Mr Brown only became the Prime Minister at the end of June, there was not as much time as we would have liked to consult properly, so we said at the time that in future years we would expect the draft proposals to come out at an earlier stage in the year and that’s what we would be doing on Wednesday.
Asked if the idea was that if the consultation came back with people saying it was a bad idea, it would not be in the Queen’s Speech, the PMS said that that was always something that had to be taken into account in any consultation.
Asked if the discussions on the programme had already taken place, or would it be discussed at tomorrow’s Cabinet, the PMS replied that he thought that there would be a further opportunity for the Cabinet to sign it off tomorrow, but they had had two lengthy sessions on this already so far.
Frank Field Comments
Asked how the Prime Minister would respond to Frank Field’s comments, the PMS said that there was clearly a lot of this about at the moment. The Prime Minister’s general view on the subject was that he would not be distracted by this; what he was focussing on were the big issues that faced the country and were of a concern to the people of this country. This was why today with Alan Johnson, the Prime Minister was launching a major consultation on the future of social care and on Wednesday he would be publishing the Government’s legislative priorities fro the next session.
Asked if there was any question of punishment for Frank Field, the PMS said that that was not a matter for him. Asked if the Prime Minister was confident of being the leader of the Labour Party at the next election, the PMS said that of course he was.
Asked if the Prime Minister had a view on the memoirs being published, the PMS said that these things happened from time to time and it was the Prime Minister’s general view that he would not be distracted by this sort of thing from the important work that he had to do.
Asked if the Prime Minister would read any of the memoirs, the PMS reiterated that the Prime Minister would not be distracted by this. Asked if the Prime Minister planned to publish his own memoirs and did he keep a diary, the PMS said that it was not something the Prime Minister was thinking about at the moment and to his knowledge, the Prime Minister did not keep a diary.
Embryology Bill
Asked if the Prime Minister would be voting on all three clauses of the Embryology Bill, the PMS said that on abortion specifically we did not know what the amendments would be and that would only be found out once the second reading had been moved later today. We would have to see what the Prime Minister’s diary commitments were for next week, but clearly this was an issue that the Prime Minister felt strongly about.
Asked if there would be free votes on the second and third reading, the PMS said that we had made this clear a couple of months ago. As was the case with the 1990 Embryology Bill, there wasn’t actually a vote at all on the second reading, but the Government at the time did whip the vote at third reading stage, so we would be following that precedent.
Asked whether the fact the Prime Minister felt strongly about the subject was because of any personal circumstances, the PMS replied that it wasn’t. The Prime Minister thought it was important that a legislative framework was put in place to enable research to take place that could potentially be of benefit to many people in the country.
Dalai Lama
Put that the Prime Minister would meet the Dalai Lama at Lambeth Palace, the PMS confirmed that the Prime Minister would be meeting the Dalai Lama on Friday 23rd May and reflecting the fact that the Dalai Lama was a respected spiritual leader, the meeting would take place at Lambeth Palace.
Put that it had been suggested that the reason the meeting was taking place at Lambeth Palace was because of a desire not to irritate the Chinese, the PMS said that the important point was that the Prime Minister was meeting the Dalai Lama. Quite where he met him was not going to add anything of substance to the fact of the meeting. It was worth noting that on the previous two occasions that the Dalai Lama visited the UK, he did not have meetings with the then Prime Minister.
Asked who was Prime Minister during the previous two visits, the PMS said that he did not have the exact dates but the visits were in recent years.
Asked if the Prime Minister would be talking to the Dalai Lama about politics, the PMS said the Prime Minister would be meeting him in his capacity as a spiritual leader, but no doubt it would be an opportunity to discuss the recent situation in Tibet as people would expect. The PMS reiterated that the Prime Minister would be meeting the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader.
President Medvedev
Put that the Prime Minister and President Medvedev had talked on the phone yesterday and had it been an opportunity to talk about tricky subjects such as the Litvinenko murder and British Councils, the PMS replied that it was a fairly short discussion that they had. Of course, we continued to raise these issues with our Russian counterparts in the normal way. They did talk about the suggestion that they should meet at the G8 Summit in July. The PMS added that he did not want to get into the specifics of the discussion, except to say it was quite a general discussion.
Burma
Asked if the Prime Minister was involved in any of the efforts at Government level on Burma, the PMS said that at the moment most of the discussion was taking place at the Foreign Secretary and Development Secretary level. The Prime Minister was taking a close interest in what was happening in Burma and as and when there were any particular events or meetings involving him we would update people.
Misc
Asked if there would be any announcement from the Treasury on 10p tax, the PMS replied that as and when the Treasury were in a position to say any more on the issue, they would do.
Asked in what form the Government Efficiency review would come in, the PMS said that there would be a Written Ministerial Statement from the Treasury later today.
Asked if the Prime Minister would go to Moscow to watch the Champions League Final, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister did not intend to go to Moscow to watch the final, although he was sure the Prime Minister would want to try and find an opportunity to watch it on television if he could.
Asked if the Prime Minister was going to Crewe or Nantwich over the next few days, the PMS said that we wouldn’t normally comment on the Prime Minister’s specific travel plans but questions relating to the byelection would be best addressed to his political colleague.
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