Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Cabinet/ID Cards, PM/Chancellor and PM Visit.
Cabinet/ID Cards
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the Prime Minister had chaired Cabinet this morning, in which the issue of ID cards had been discussed. As a result, Cabinet had agreed the following: "In principle, Cabinet believes that a national ID card scheme could bring major benefits. In practice, given the size and complexity of the scheme, a number of issues will need to be resolved over the years ahead. So we intend to proceed, by incremental steps, to build a base for a compulsory national ID card scheme, with a final decision to proceed to a compulsory card later, when the conditions for moving to a compulsory card are met. We will legislate to enable the scheme to be introduced, and plan on the basis that all the practical problems can be overcome. But we will reserve the final decision on a move to compulsion until later this decade."
Asked to clarify whether the Cabinet were in favour of ID cards in principle, the PMOS pointed to the beginning of the statement which stated clearly that they were. The incremental approach should not come as a surprise to anyone because that was what we had been talking about in the past.
Asked if draft legislation for ID cards was expected to be included in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech, the PMOS said that it wasn’t our policy to pre-empt the Queen’s Speech, as journalists were well aware. He added that further details would be provided by the Home Secretary in the House in due course. Asked if we were expecting legislation ‘this side of an election’, the PMOS repeated that the Home Secretary would set out the issue in more detail shortly.
Asked to explain what was meant by the term ‘incremental steps’, the PMOS said that previous Administrations had recognised the benefits of an ID card scheme. However, there had always been serious practical questions which had needed to be addressed. That was precisely what we had been doing over the last twenty months or so. We had now reached the point where the Government believed that, in principle, we should move forward, but do so in a two-stage process - the detail of which would be spelt out by the Home Secretary in the House. Of course that was not to suggest that all the practical questions had been resolved at this stage. Rather, an approach had been agreed which would allow us to resolve them as we went along.
Asked which Minister would be responsible for judging whether the conditions to move to compulsion had been met, the PMOS said that journalists should exercise a little patience and wait for the Home Secretary to spell out the detail of the issue. The important thing about today was the fact that there had been a good, collective discussion around the Cabinet table and a collective agreement on the way forward. Questioned as to whether Ministers would take part in ‘roadshows’ to boost support for ID cards, the PMOS said that he was not aware of any plans for them to do so.
PM/Chancellor
Asked about the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor in view of the Chancellor’s ‘public criticism’ of the Prime Minister today, and whether that relationship remained one of the great strengths of this Government, as his colleague had told journalists yesterday, the PMOS said that he did not recognise the premise of the question. Nothing had changed between yesterday and today. The relationship between the two remained one of the great strengths of this Government. Put to him that the Chancellor had publicly criticised the Prime Minister by saying that the election campaign had worked better under the system which he wanted to reintroduce, the PMOS said that as a Civil Servant, he was unable to comment on party political matters. That said, he could confirm that the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor remained strong. They had spoken regularly during the Chancellor’s paternity leave and the two continued to speak often.
Asked what the Prime Minister and the Chancellor would discuss over dinner tonight, the PMOS said the fact that the two were having dinner together should not come as surprise to anyone, as this was a regular occurrence. This particular engagement had been arranged around three weeks ago. The PMOS added that the Prime Minister also regularly had dinner with Cabinet colleagues - about once a week, on average, when Parliament was sitting. Asked whether tonight’s dinner would be taking place in No 10, the PMOS declined to speculate on the venue or the menu. Questioned as to whether the Prime Minister’s dinner with Ministers were had on a one-to-one basis, the PMOS said that it wasn’t our policy to brief on the Prime Minister’s guest list either. Asked if he would agree that it was unusual for the Chancellor to have announced that he would be having dinner with the Prime Minister tonight, the PMOS pointed out that the Chancellor had been responding to suggestions that there were differences between him and the Prime Minister. He had simply been demonstrating the point that he and the Prime Minister were in regular contact. Asked for a reaction to anonymous sources on both sides confirming that the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor was poisonous, the PMOS said that we never commented on anonymous sources.
Asked to comment on the portrayal of Peter Mandelson as a piece of grit in the eye of the Chancellor inasmuch as his role in No 10 had more of an impact than the Chancellor’s, the PMOS said that as we had acknowledged in the past, the Prime Minister spoke to Mr Mandelson from time to time, as you would expect. However, we did not brief on the detail of their conversations any more than we briefed on the detail of conversations the Prime Minister had with Cabinet colleagues.
PM Visit
In answer to questions about the Prime Minister’s visit to Dagenham and Basildon today, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister was visiting those areas for a variety of reasons. In Basildon, he would visit an estate and hear from local residents about the problems that yobbish behaviour - burnt out cars, graffiti, criminal damage and the misuse of fireworks in the area - had caused them and their families. Asked if Ken Livingstone would be accompanying the Prime Minister, the PMOS said that Mr Livingstone would only attend the Dagenham part of the visit. Asked if this was an indication of a rapprochement between the two, the PMOS said that as a Civil Servant, he was unable to comment on party political matters, but where there were practical matters to discuss, no doubt they would be.
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