Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: PM’s Speech and Hutton Report.
PM’s Speech
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the Prime Minister would be making a speech in Watford today about public services. He would talk about the need to maintain reform, but also to engage people in thinking about the difficult issues and decisions which had to be taken. He would also refer to Lord Hutton’s report yesterday.
Hutton Report
In answer to questions about the Government’s reaction to the Hutton Report, the PMOS said the main message was that it was a serious, rigorous piece of work which people should be encouraged to read because of its analysis, not just of the problems which had arisen, but also in terms of what it had to say about the need to try to move to a situation where serious issues could be debated without calling people’s integrity into question. Asked to which part of the Report he was referring, the PMOS drew journalists’ attention to paragraph 282 which stated that ‘false accusations of fact impugning the integrity of others, including politicians, should not be made by the media". Put to him that that was precisely what the Prime Minister was doing at the moment by demanding an apology from the Leader of the Opposition, the PMOS said that it wasn’t his job to comment on party political matters. However, the Prime Minister continued to believe that his integrity had been called into question and that it was only right for people to recognise that Lord Hutton did not support anybody doing such a thing. Asked if he would agree that paragraph 282 was a bit ‘pious’, the PMOS said no - and nor would anyone else in Government over the last nine months. It was our deep wish to be able to debate serious issues without calling people’s integrity into question. Asked if he was indicating that the Government was looking for a new dialogue with the media, the PMOS said that we certainly wanted to have a more sensible, rational dialogue with the media. The analysis contained in the Phillis Report had focussed on a three-way breakdown of trust between the Government, the media and the general public. He suggested that people should read the Hutton Report, absorb its findings and not try to sweep it to one side as some in the media had done this morning.
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Alastair Campbell’s view that there should be several BBC resignations, the PMOS said that the BBC Board of Governors were meeting today. It was up to them to decide personnel matters. However, the Prime Minister believed that the BBC would want to consider very seriously the profound criticisms from Lord Hutton about the BBC’s reporting, the editorial control and management and the way the Governors themselves had responded to those failings. Put to him that Mr Campbell’s statement yesterday had impugned the integrity of senior BBC representatives, the PMOS said that the statement was a matter for Mr Campbell. He wasn’t his spokesman.
Asked if Downing Street was satisfied with the ’sort of’ apology from the Director General of the BBC yesterday, the PMOS said that we still wanted an apology. Lord Hutton had said that the Governors were to be criticised for failing to give proper and adequate consideration to whether the BBC should acknowledge publicly that the grave allegation that had been made should not have been broadcast. No doubt that was one of the issues which the Governors would want to discuss at their meeting today. Asked if he was saying that Downing Street was not satisfied with the ’semi-apology’ from Greg Dyke yesterday, the PMOS said we still believed that the BBC should issue an apology. Asked to clarify what the BBC should be apologising for, the PMOS said that they should apologise for broadcasting a false allegation which, as Lord Hutton had said, was unfounded. Asked in what format we wanted the apology to be made, the PMOS said that that was a matter for the BBC. Asked to explain why the Director General’s statement yesterday did not meet Downing Street’s criteria for an apology, the PMOS said we did not believe that it had amounted to a considered statement from the BBC Governors, which was what we were looking for. Asked again what type of apology the Government was looking for from the BBC, the PMOS said that he was not going to dictate to the BBC what they should say or do. They would have a fairly good idea of what we wanted after reading the Hutton Report.
Asked if the MoD would be apologising to the Kelly family in the light of the Report’s criticism of the Department’s duty of care towards Dr Kelly, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had told the Commons yesterday that we accepted the Hutton Report in full and would learn lessons from it. That included the failings which Lord Hutton had highlighted in relation to personnel issues. Pressed as to whether the MoD would apologise to Mrs Kelly, the PMOS said we had always made it clear that we were cognisant of the pain and suffering of the Kelly family. The Prime Minister had spoken about this issue in the House yesterday. His words spoke for themselves.
Asked which lessons the Prime Minister considered were necessary to be learned, the PMOS said that there were particular lessons relating to procedures in the MoD in what, as Lord Hutton had recognised, were mitigating circumstances. Asked if there were any wider lessons for the Government to learn, the PMOS said that Lord Hutton had reached his own conclusions in his Report which we accepted in full. The PMOS suggested that the wider lessons were for others to learn, rather than the Government.
Asked if the Prime Minister believed that lessons to be learned included the handling and utilisation of intelligence material, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had responded to this point on the Frost programme and in his interview with the Observer last week. The position had not changed. Asked if the role of the intelligence services and the way they handled intelligence material would be reviewed, the PMOS said that it was perfectly legitimate to ask about the existence of WMD. However, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was looking into the issue and it should be allowed to complete its work before people started jumping to conclusions. Asked for a reaction to the evidence given to the US Senate by David Kay, the former head of the ISG, who had said there had been a ‘comprehensive failure of intelligence’, the PMOS pointed out that Dr Kay himself had said that the work of the ISG should be allowed to continue. He had also said that the evidence the ISG had uncovered showed that Iraq was in multiple breach of Resolution 1441.
Asked to explain the Prime Minister’s comment yesterday that "it is absolutely right that people can question whether the intelligence received was right; and why we have not yet found WMD", the PMOS said the Prime Minister had been making the point that it was perfectly legitimate to ask the question about what had happened to the WMD. Equally, it was legitimate for people to ask questions about intelligence. However, he had also said that it was premature to try to give answers when the ISG was still carrying out its work. Asked when the ISG was due to complete its work, the PMOS said that it was a matter for the ISG to determine its own timetable. Asked if he was implying that we might have to wait a year for the report, the PMOS said that he wasn’t implying anything. He was simply making the point that it was surely sensible to allow the ISG to complete its work rather than pre-judge its conclusions. Asked if it was really acceptable to wait before examining the efficacy of our intelligence services in the light of the heightened global security threat, the PMOS said that before journalists started calling the intelligence into question, it was sensible to wait for the results of the ISG’s work. He pointed out that one of the lessons from the Hutton Report was that it was better to establish the facts before rushing to judgement. Put to him that any failings on the part of the intelligence services should be examined now rather than in a year’s time for example, the PMOS said that the premise of the question was based on an assumption that there were failings in the first place. That was not necessarily the case. People should exercise a little patience and wait for the ISG to report. Asked if the Government now accepted that the 45-minute claim was wrong, the PMOS repeated that people should wait for the ISG report before jumping to conclusions about the intelligence.
Asked if the Prime Minister had placed in the Commons Library the basis for is claim about the ‘massive network of clandestine laboratories’ in Iraq, as the Leader of the Opposition had asked him to do, the PMOS reminded journalists that the ISG’s report had been published last November. It was widely available to anybody who wanted it. Asked if anything further had been published since then, the PMOS said no.
Asked who in Downing Street had seen the Hutton Report in advance of its publication, the PMOS said that only those who had been authorised to see it - with the agreement of the Hutton Inquiry team - had done so. He had no intention of providing a list of names. Asked if there were any plans for the Prime Minister to meet Lord Hutton, the PMOS said not as far as he was aware. Asked if next week’s debate on the Hutton Report in the Commons would still be going ahead, the PMOS said yes.
Asked if, in his view and in the view of his employers, the ‘Walter Mitty’ matter was now entirely closed in the light of Lord Hutton’s criticism, the PMOS said that Lord Hutton had been generous enough to recognise that he had apologised both at the time and twice to the Inquiry. He had also concluded that he had played no part in a covert strategy to leak Dr Kelly’s name. Nor had he been part of any covert strategy to demean or belittle Dr Kelly. Lord Hutton had published his report, and as far as he was concerned, that was where the matter should rest.
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