Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Iraq, Zimbabwe/Cricket and Asylum.
Iraq
Asked whether the Prime Minister was planning to attend the EU Special Summit next week, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that as he understood it, the Greek Presidency was still consulting other EU members and colleagues about the proposal. As far as he was aware, a final decision had not yet been taken. Asked the Government’s view of the idea, the PMOS said that it depended on what the Summit as for. We would talk to the Presidency and find out what agenda they had in mind. Pressed as to whether the Prime Minister would attend given Chancellor Schroeder had indicated that he was intending to go, the PMOS said that he was not going to pre-empt the final decision of the Presidency. We were perfectly relaxed about it. Put to him that it would be inconceivable for the Prime Minister not to attend if every other EU leader did, the PMOS said that he was not suggesting otherwise. He was simply making the point that the Presidency had yet to make a final decision as to whether to hold the Summit or not. Questioned as to whether the British Government had been consulted by the Greek Presidency about the Summit, the PMOS said that consultations were ongoing at official level about the matter. Asked if he thought it possible that the UK was ‘being left out of the loop’, the PMOS said no. He pointed out that people had been saying over the last few weeks that we were isolated within Europe - and then, lo and behold, ten days ago there were eight European signatories to a letter. The idea that we were out on a limb in Europe was obviously very wrong. Clearly there was a debate on this matter, and we were playing a part in that. Our position was clear. We were sticking to the fundamental requisites of Resolution 1441. Asked to confirm that the Prime Minister did not regret being one of the signatories to the letter, the PMOS said that nothing he nor anyone had said about it would suggest otherwise. In our opinion, no one should be afraid to state their point of view.
Put to him that we appeared to be in danger of looking like we were not taking this ‘crisis’ seriously, the PMOS said that nothing he had said could be interpreted as such. We accepted that there was a debate going forward within Europe in which we had been engaged intricately, putting forward our point of view at each and every opportunity. No one could accuse us of not taking things seriously. The point was that it was not helpful for journalists to push us into making premature judgements.
Asked if we remained of the view that there was no Franco-German plan, the PMOS said that no formal plan had been presented to us. Until that happened, we were unable to respond. Put to him that there was a plan - because it was being reported in the newspapers, the PMOS said that there was no Franco-German plan of which we had been formally notified. We were therefore unable to comment on something we were not even certain existed. Put to him by the Guardian that the US had not been to war ‘formally’ since 1941 and yet the bombs still fell, the PMOS said that the two situations were not comparable. He repeated that we did not have a Franco-German plan on which to comment.
Asked for a reaction to the idea of sending in UN troops to back up an increased number of weapons inspectors, the PMOS noted that there appeared to be some confusion about this suggestion. One wire report from Germany had stated that it wasn’t even part of the proposal. Asked for the Government’s view of the idea, the PMOS said that, as Hans Blix had underlined this morning, the key point was not the number of inspectors. The key point was that Saddam had to change his attitude.
Zimbabwe/Cricket
Asked to validate conflicting reports suggesting that the England cricket team would/would not be playing their World Cup matches in Zimbabwe, the PMOS said that he was not a spokesman for the ICC or ECB. He agreed that there appeared to be some sort of a stand-off between Sky and the BBC about the status of the statement. He was delighted to say, however, that that was a matter for the TV channels involved, not him.
Asked for a reaction to the criticism expressed by the ECB and England players themselves concerning the way the Government had dealt with the matter, the PMOS said that we had been pointing out in private meetings since last July that we believed, regrettably, that the situation in Zimbabwe would deteriorate at around this time. Unfortunately, our predictions had proven to be correct. Equally, we had always said that we did not have the power to order the cricketing authorities or the players not to go to Zimbabwe. That remained the case. We understood that this was a very difficult situation, both for the ECB and for the players. However, in the end, it was their decision to make.
Questioned as to why we hadn’t expressed a view about Zimbabwe taking part in the Commonwealth Games last year if we had been so concerned about the cricket World Cup last July, the PMOS said that we had not aimed to penalise the Zimbabwean team or Zimbabwean people. Our aim was to enforce the sanctions against Robert Mugabe and stop him taking the opportunity to turn any situation to his advantage for propaganda purposes.
Asylum
Asked again about the Prime Minister’s commitment to halve the numbers of asylum seekers, as outlined in his Newsnight interview on Friday, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had given an overall indication of the thinking that was currently going on, both in the Home Office and also in their discussions with Downing Street, concerning the impact the measures we had put in place to tackle the issue of asylum were going to make. The key question was not so much the figures as the fact that if we hadn’t made a significant impact by September 2003, then people would obviously know about it, particularly since the media would no doubt hold us to account. Questioned as to whether he was talking about the September 2003 figures, the PMOS said yes. They would be published later on in the autumn. As the Prime Minister had said, he was determined to keep the issue under constant review. We hoped that the downward trend would become clear.
Questioned as to whether the Prime Minister had been expressing an aspiration or a pledge, the PMOS said that as he had stated this morning, October 2002 had been the last month before the introduction of the new Asylum and Immigration Act. It had also been the last month prior to the introduction of the various measures which we had put in place since then. The Prime Minister had therefore thought it sensible to try to aim for halving the intake in October 2002 by September 2003. What that aim might be called mattered less than achieving it, which was precisely what we were trying to do.
Asked if the Prime Minister was intending to chair COBRA meetings on asylum in the same way he had on street crime, the PMOS said that particular fora were used for particular meetings. Dealing with the issue of street crime had involved a vast number of different crime fighting agencies, and it had therefore been decided to use the COBRA set-up as it was considered to be the most appropriate forum. In contrast, the Prime Minister had for some time been having a number of lower-key meetings involving the relevant Ministers and officials.
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