Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Europe, Euro, Iraq Dossier and Reshuffle.
Europe
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that the Prime Minister had sent a letter of congratulations to the Polish Prime Minster Leszek Miller following the provisional results of the Polish referendum on joining the European Union. Although the final result would not come through until this evening the outcome was clear. The PMOS quoted part of the letter which said that: "Poland will bring much to the Union and we in Britain look forward to continuing to work together to help achieve your aspirations for Poland within the EU."
The PMOS advised journalists that the Prime Minister would be going to Paris on Wednesday evening for dinner with President Chirac following an invitation by the President at St Petersburg. The Prime Minister would stay overnight and have breakfast with Prime Minister Raffarin. The PMOS confirmed that the Prime Minister would be back in time for Cabinet at 10.00am. Asked what the purpose of Chirac’s invitation was the PMOS said it was an opportunity for an extended discussion on issues of mutual interest and importance. They had not had such an opportunity since the summit at La Touquet and the discussion would no doubt focus on the convention pre-Thessaloniki, the single currency as well as post conflict reconstruction issues in Iraq. Asked if this was the official end to the Anglo-French split the PMOS said the government had been open throughout about the fact that there had been a difference of view in relation to the so-called second resolution and Iraq. Everybody was well aware of that but as we had always said there was a lot more that united our two countries than divided them. Asked about media access the PMOS said that there were no plans for any joint press events as things stood before the media started to book their Easyjet flights.
Euro
The PMOS told journalists that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor would be doing a joint Press Conference at Downing Street tomorrow at 11.00am, following today’s statement on the Cabinet’s decision on the Euro.
In answer to questions concerning the Euro the PMOS told journalists to wait for the Chancellor’s statement at 3.30pm. They had 1738 pages of reading to do before then and he didn’t want to say anything that may distract them. The PMOS told journalists that the policy was agreed at Cabinet last Thursday and today’s statement obviously flowed from that. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor had met in Downing Street yesterday afternoon to discuss some of the issues that would follow on from the statement today. They hadn’t spoken so far today but no doubt they would speak at some stage before 3.30pm.
Asked if Prime Minister and the Chancellor worked on the statement together the PMOS repeated that the statement flowed from the policy that was agreed at Cabinet. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor would clearly have agreed the statement in their discussions. In terms of the discussion over the weekend they were pretty much confined to how we moved forward after today.
Asked if he could recall another policy which had had so much rigorous analysis, time and effort the PMOS said that he couldn’t off hand and didn’t think it was overstating it to say that a decision about a nation’s currency was one of the most important decisions any government could take. The detailed nature of this process, the very lengthy and meticulous analysis of the economics by the Treasury, as well as the process of consultation with Cabinet colleagues indicated how seriously the Government was approaching this. We had always said that the decision would be taken in the national economic interests and that was as true today as when the Chancellor first said it 1997. We had always said that this was a pro-European government.
Asked if the Prime Minister would be speaking to any other world leaders the PMOS said he would be making some calls later today.
Asked whether the Patricia Hewitt’s speech this evening would be part of a more open "push" for the Euro, the PMOS said journalists would have to wait for the statement at 3.30pm. The Cabinet was absolutely united around the policy.
Iraq Dossier
Asked if Alastair Campbell and the Prime Minister would be appearing before the Intelligence Select Committee and the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, the PMOS confirmed that the government had received a request late last Friday from the Foreign Affairs Committee for both the Prime Minister and Alastair Campbell to appear. That was being considered in the usual way and he didn’t think anyone would be surprised if the Select Committee were to be informed first of our judgement on that. The PMOS took the opportunity to tell journalists that the Prime Minister would be appearing before the Liaison Committee in the week commencing the 7th July. There was precedent that Downing Street officials didn’t appear before committees to discuss their work inside Downing Street. The Prime Minister answered to parliament every week uniquely amongst ministers at Prime Minister’s Questions on behalf of Downing Street and the whole government. Alastair Campbell had appeared before the Public Administration Select Committee to discuss the whole issue of government communications when they were reviewing it but that was separate. The PMOS said that the government hadn’t received any request from the Intelligence Committee yet, and that was a matter for them. They were publishing their annual report tomorrow and the Prime Minister would be meeting them as he would have done in any event, but it would not be an evidence hearing session. Concerning the stories over the weekend on the ’second dossier’ the PMOS said that he didn’t think if everyone was honest about this that they took us any further forward then we had been in February. We had acknowledged at the time that parts of the ‘dossier’ should have been properly sourced and that there had been a mistake. It was hardly surprising in the light of that if Alastair Campbell had asked for tighter procedures of those responsible for its production and assured the intelligence agencies that greater care would be taken in dealing with anything that might impact on their reputation or on their work. But people were conflating the two dossiers and more importantly in the context of this story it didn’t change one iota the central point at issue. Namely the first dossier and the use of intelligence in it. As we had said throughout, the first dossier was the considered judgement of the Joint Intelligence Committee. The Prime Minister had explained with crystal clarity in the House of Commons last Wednesday the genesis of that material. The PMOS said he though these later stories were for the avoidance of any doubt a classic case of smoke without fire.
Reshuffle
Asked for guidance on possible reshuffles the PMOS referred journalists to his comments last Friday on the three possible answers to reshuffle questions. Asked to repeat what he had said by those who had not been present he said that reshuffle stories appeared at this time of year and journalists then asked us about them. There three options we used in responding to them. Option 1 was "That is a reshuffle question". Option 2 was "we never comment on reshuffles" and there was the exciting option 3 where options 1 and 3 were joined by the word "and". This year was no different.
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