Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: PM Health and Top-Up Fees.
PM Health
Asked if the Prime Minister had been checked over by a doctor today, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said yes. Asked to provide further details, the PMOS said that the doctors who had seen the Prime Minister last night had popped in again today just before lunch, as they had said they would when they had left yesterday. There were no plans for them to see the Prime Minister again. As we had underlined this morning, the Prime Minister was fine and getting on with his engagements for the day.
In answer to questions, the PMOS said that these were very subjective issues and we had to make the appropriate judgements about what information to put out on a case by case basis. An individual was entitled to some privacy in relation to medical issues - even if that individual was the Prime Minister. Obviously we would inform the media immediately if he required hospital treatment, as indeed we had done last time - and we hoped journalists would acknowledge that we had been fulsome in the amount of information we had given at that time. However, as he understood it, last night’s ‘event’ could have been one of a number of things - none of which were a cause for concern. Put to him that the episode of irregular heartbeat had not become public knowledge until journalists had been told what had happened by a third party, the PMOS pointed out that Downing Street had been contacted by the BBC on Sunday 19 October after the Prime Minister had returned to Downing Street from hospital and while we were in the process of putting together a statement which we had been going to release to the press. In the event, that statement had gone out within 35-40 minutes of the BBC’s initial phonecall. We had always intended to make it public. However, it was important to recognise - as we believed the public did - that there was a qualitative difference between the Prime Minister being admitted to hospital and receiving a cardio-version and the Prime Minister seeing a doctor in Downing Street and no treatment being required as a result. These were clearly difficult judgements which we had to make, but, he repeated, everybody was entitled to some privacy with regard to their medical circumstance, including the Prime Minister. Asked if we were continuing to maintain that the episode of irregular heartbeat was the first time the Prime Minister had suffered from such a thing, the PMOS said yes. The situation hadn’t changed. He added that one or two people had suggested to us today that that incident in October and last night’s event were connected. That was not the case.
Asked if he was implying that the public had no automatic right to know if the Prime Minister suffered another health-scare in the future, the PMOS said he was simply making the point that there was a difference between the Prime Minister seeing a doctor in Downing Street and the Prime Minister having to go into hospital for treatment. If last night had resulted in the Prime Minister being admitted to hospital, as journalists had - inaccurately - put to us yesterday evening, then obviously we would have told people straight away. However, this was, by definition, a grey area and very subjective. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that later on yesterday evening, the Prime Minister had felt fine again and had continued to work on his speech which he was due to give in Wales tomorrow. He had not received any treatment for what had happened and no further appointments had been set up with the doctors who had seen him last night and today. That was the prosaic reality of what had happened. Asked if the Prime Minister’s health would now be monitored more regularly, the PMOS said not as far as he was aware.
Top-Up Fees
Asked if the Prime Minister’s Conversation with Britain could result in the idea of top-up fees being dropped and another idea being adopted if people told him they didn’t agree with the policy, the PMOS said that the Government had made absolutely clear yesterday its intention to legislate on this issue. Put to him that the Queen hadn’t mentioned anything about top-up fees in her Speech other than the fact that the Government would put universities on a sound financial footing and whether this was an indication that another model would be used if top-up fees failed, the PMOS said that we had indicated pretty clearly the direction in which the Government intended to go on this issue. Self-evidently there was no easy way of doing this. If you were committed to getting more people into higher education at the same time as more investment into our universities, a judgement obviously had to be made as to how much would be funded from general taxation and how much you could ask the individual to pay. Those fixed points were not going to change. Questioned as to whether other options were being considered, the PMOS said that the Government had set out what it wanted to do, namely to abolish up-front fees and bring in variable fees which would kick in at £15,000 when students would be able to begin paying it back. We also wanted to widen access. The Bill would be published and would go through Parliament during which time there would be plenty of opportunity for people to make suggestions and amendments just as they did with any piece of legislation that went through. Pressed as to whether the policy was ‘up for grabs’ within the parameters of having to lever in more finance from graduates at some stage in their working lives, the PMOS said that he would not over-interpret what Peter Hain had said in his interview last night on Newsnight. As he had said, the Government remained fully committed to this policy. Asked why DfES were saying that top-up fees would not form part of the Prime Minister’s Conversation with Britain when the Prime Minister had said in his last Press Conference that it would, the PMOS said that the document would be published tomorrow. The Queen’s Speech had been published yesterday, the contents of which were a clear signal of intent from the Government on what it planned to legislate for in this session. Asked when journalists would be told when the Bill would be published, the PMOS said when a decision was taken and when someone told him what it was.
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