Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: the Hutton Report.
Hutton Report
Asked how long it would take to appoint a new BBC Chairman, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that it would take as long as it takes. The appointment would go through the usual process. As he understood it, we hoped to have somebody in place by Easter. Asked to describe the ‘usual process’, the PMOS referred journalists to the DCMS for further detail. It was the normal process for public appointments. Asked what sort of qualities the Prime Minister would like to see in the new Chairman, the PMOS said that the appointments process was supposed to be independent to allow individual candidates to come forward. He was not going to pre-judge that process. It would be the Prime Minister’s job to approve the final candidate. Asked if he would agree that the Prime Minister should remove himself from the process this time around given the ‘extraordinary’ circumstances’, the PMOS said he didn’t know if that would be possible constitutionally. There was a process to be gone through and it would be followed. Asked if the Prime Minister had any plans to meet Lord Ryder, the acting Chairman, in the near future, the PMOS said not as far as he was aware at this stage.
Asked if the Prime Minister felt that more people from the BBC should have resigned, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had welcomed today’s statement and apology. Greg Dyke and Gavyn Davies had both decided to resign. The Prime Minister believed that two decent and honourable men had done the decent and honourable thing. It was time to move on. Asked if the Prime Minister felt that Alastair Campbell had asked for too many heads to roll at the BBC, the PMOS said that he was not going to get into a discussion about Mr Campbell’s remarks. Asked for a reaction to e-mails to Channel 4 News suggesting that the Government had sacked Mr Dyke and Mr Davies, the PMOS repeated that they had decided to resign of their own accord. He reiterated that the Prime Minister believed that two decent and honourable men had done the decent and honourable thing. It was time to move on.
Asked to clarify the accusation which the Prime Minister had wanted the BBC to withdraw, the PMOS said that journalists only needed to read Lord Hutton’s Report to find that out. As the Prime Minister had said this afternoon, he accepted the apology today and believed it was time to move on. Pressed further, the PMOS said that Lord Hutton had dealt with the question as to whether the BBC could defend itself by saying that its source, rather than the organisation, had made the accusation. He was content to leave the response to Lord Hutton.
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