Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: WMD and BBC.
WMD
Asked if the Prime Minister was likely to respond to demands for an inquiry on WMD, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the position had not changed since the Prime Minister had set it out in his Observer interview last week. We believed that the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) should be allowed to complete its work. Asked if today’s Times report that an inquiry would be carried out by the ISC was a little premature but not necessarily inaccurate, the PMOS said that it wasn’t our policy to comment on the work of the ISC. This was really a matter for them. He pointed out that the Committee had already investigated the issue. Asked if the ISC was still awaiting the Government’s official response to its report and if so, whether it was due within the next few days, the PMOS said that we would respond at the appropriate time. He was not going to pre-empt it. Asked if it would form part of the post-Hutton debate in the Commons next Wednesday, the PMOS repeated that we would respond to the report at the appropriate time.
Asked if the Prime Minister continued to have faith in the intelligence he had received in the run-up to the war in Iraq, the PMOS reminded journalists that the Prime Minister had answered the question in his Observer interview last week when he had said that he believed the intelligence was right and that there would be an explanation. The position had not changed.
Asked for a reaction to Condoleeza Rice’s comment that we had found something different to what we had been expecting to find on the ground, the PMOS said that Ms Rice had in fact stated, "I think it was the judgment of our intelligence community, the judgment of intelligence communities around the world. It was the judgment of many intelligence officials who didn’t even support the war in countries that he had weapons of mass destruction". We agreed with that view. Equally, she had said that it was important to wait for the ISG to establish the facts. We agreed with that too. Put to him again that Ms Rice had remarked that what we had found was something different to what we had expected to be found, the PMOS pointed out that the process had not yet been completed. The ISG was still carrying out its work. People should exercise a little patience. Asked if the report was expected in the summer, the PMOS said that the ISG’s timetable was a matter for the ISG. Put to him that the ISG’s conclusions would surely be no different to the view expressed by David Kay, the PMOS pointed out that Dr Kay had also accepted that the ISG’s work was not yet complete. Asked if Downing Street considered Condoleeza Rice’s comments to be premature, the PMOS said that as the Prime Minister had said in his Observer interview, it was a simple fact of life that we had not yet found the WMD. We had, however, found evidence of WMD programmes, as David Kay had stated in his interim report last year, which, as he had pointed out, would have represented a breach of Resolution 1441.
BBC
Asked if Greg Dyke’s apparent inability to accept the whole of Lord Hutton’s Report would make it difficult to draw a line under the whole episode and move on, the PMOS said the important thing was that both the BBC and the Government had said that it was time to draw a line and move on. A dispassionate judge had looked at the facts and had made his judgement. That was where the matter should rest.
Asked if the Prime Minister had begun the process of looking for a replacement for Gavyn Davies, the PMOS said that the appointment of a new BBC Chairman would be made through the Nolan process. This was an independent process, which had been established before Mr Davies had been appointed. He had absolutely no intention of giving a running commentary because the process was an independent one and should remain so. Asked to explain what the Nolan process was, the PMOS said that as he understood it, it allowed an independent panel to assess the candidates. He referred journalists to DCMS for further detail.
Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned that opinion polls appeared to show that the public was sceptical about the conclusions of the Hutton Report, the PMOS said the Prime Minister believed that people should read the Report carefully. We accepted that there had been a lot of emotion and anger around yesterday. However, the judge had reached his conclusions on his assessment of the facts. It was important for people to recognise that the conclusions were the judge’s verdict. As both Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke had said, the judge had been the referee. His decision should be accepted.
Asked if the Government would be learning any lessons in the light of a poll this morning which showed that three times as many people apparently trusted the BBC as trusted the Government, the PMOS said that we, too, valued the BBC. We also wanted to see an independent, journalistically strong BBC. This was a particular instance in which, as Lord Hutton had said, a ‘grave’ and ‘unfounded’ accusation had been made. We welcomed the fact that the BBC had now issued an apology for it. Pressed as to whether there were any lessons for the Government to learn as a result of today’s poll, the PMOS said that the interim Phillis report last year had talked about a three-way breakdown of trust between the Government and politicians, the media and the public. The report had suggested that all sides needed to accept their share of responsibility for the situation and be prepared to look at how the relationship should operate. The Government had already started to do that. The media’s response was a matter for the media.
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