Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Hutton Report, Tuition Fees, Philip Stephens’ Book and Iraq/WMD.
Hutton Report
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists of the order of events for Wednesday. The Prime Minister would do PMQs at midday, as usual. After that, Lord Hutton would make his statement at the Royal Courts of Justice. The Speaker of the House would interrupt business (about social security matters) for the Prime Minister to make a Statement at about 2pm, following which business would resume.
Asked again if the Leader of the Opposition and Charles Kennedy would be able to participate in PMQs given the ‘lock in’ to which they would be subjected in the morning to read the Hutton Report, the PMOS pointed out that they were not being incarcerated in the Cabinet Office. They would be allowed to leave the premises, so he would imagine they would be in the House for PMQs. Asked if others would be allowed to replace them, the PMOS said he didn’t know. He pointed out that other people would be accompanying them to the Cabinet Office, and they would presumably be left there once the Leader of the Opposition and Mr Kennedy had departed to prepare for PMQs. Questioned about the short amount of time that was available to read the Report, in contrast to the Government who would have twenty-four hours, the PMOS said we had been through this already. He reminded journalists of the amount of time that had been allocated to the then Opposition to read the Scott report. The time that had been given to the Opposition this time around was twice as long. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that we really were getting into some arcane and irrelevant process. Journalists would not have to tread water much longer.
Tuition Fees
Asked if the Prime Minister was ‘touring the tea rooms’ this afternoon or meeting parliamentary colleagues in his office at the House to discuss the issue of tuition fees, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister would be holding meetings with MPs. Asked if he was seeing them in groups or individually, the PMOS said both, as he had been doing for the past week. Asked if he was intending to meet with backbenchers tomorrow as well, the PMOS said that the Government’s dialogue with MPs would continue, but how much time the Prime Minister would spend meeting people personally, we would have to wait and see. He anticipated discussions continuing up until the vote. Asked how much the Prime Minister considered opposition to the Bill to be personal, the PMOS said that as we had underlined from the outset, and as the Prime Minister had spelt out in his Observer interview at the weekend, we hoped that MPs were considering the issue on the basis of the arguments. That was certainly how the Prime Minister was approaching the discussions. It was about explanation and dialogue regarding the policy.
Questioned as to whether the Prime Minister would be on the frontbench with Charles Clarke for Second Reading, the PMOS said he would expect him to be. Asked if any Ministers and backbenchers would be brought back from abroad to vote, the PMOS said that Whipping was not a matter for him. However, he would imagine there would be a ‘full house’. It was an important piece of legislation.
Philip Stephens’ Book
Asked if he thought it was odd that, according to the book, intelligence reports were supposed to have alerted the Prime Minister to President Chirac’s opinion of him - which meant that somebody had been ‘ear wigging’ on the President’s conversations, the PMOS said that all he would say about this matter was that we never commented on intelligence - or did book reviews. As he had underlined this morning, the Prime Minister enjoyed a very a good relationship with President Chirac. It was no secret that there had been a difference of view regarding Iraq. However, we were looking forwards, not backwards.
WMD/Iraq
Asked for a reaction to David Kay’s suggestion that Saddam Hussein might have sent his WMDs to Syria, the PMOS said that if anyone had any evidence to back up such a claim, they should alert the relevant authorities. Put to him that it would be in the Government’s interest to take a ‘more robust view’, the PMOS said he thought it was important to be measured in such matters, not necessarily robust for the sake of it.
Asked if the Prime Minister had received a letter from the Leader of the Opposition complaining about the Prime Minister’s comments about him in his Observer interview on Sunday, the PMOS said yes he had and a response would no doubt be sent in due course.
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