Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Northern Ireland, Council Tax and European Constitution.
Northern Ireland
Asked if the Prime Minister would be going to Northern Ireland this week, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said no. He was going to Africa. However, the Prime Minister expected to meet some of the party leaders in London before Christmas, as he had said yesterday.
Council Tax
Asked if he agreed with the Audit Commission’s view, as reported in today’s FT, that Ministers should take responsibility for increased council tax rises, the PMOS said that the Audit Commission report was being published for tomorrow, to which the ODPM would be issuing a response with the same embargo. It was important to look at the totality of the report, rather than what had been reported this morning.
European Constitution
Asked how confident the Government was that a deal on the European Constitution might be reached at the European Council in Brussels next week, the PMOS said that as the Foreign Secretary had pointed out in Naples last weekend, some good progress had been made. We were approaching this from the perspective that a deal could be done. The General Affairs Council would be meeting again next Monday when European Foreign Ministers would discuss IGC-related issues. There was clearly a desire for this to be concluded at Brussels. We would have to wait and see how things panned out. It went without saying that the current position was more positive than it had been two or three weeks ago.
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