Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: European Constitution and Beverley Hughes.
European Constitution
Questioned about the timescale for applying the European Constitution were a deal to be agreed by June 17, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that while we wanted to make progress as soon as possible, these matters were not totally in our control. First, we would need to obtain an agreement. Secondly, even if that were to happen by June 17, it would be necessary to format it into draft EU legislation before we were able introduce it as a Parliamentary Bill. Both processes would obviously take some time. That said, as the Prime Minister had had made clear in his Statement to the House this afternoon, we hoped that progress would be made as quickly as possible because it was important for a Europe at twenty-five to work efficiently.
Beverley Hughes
Questioned about the position of Beverley Hughes, the PMOS said that her position had not changed since this morning, last week and even the week before when he had underlined the Prime Minister’s confidence in her. Asked if the Prime Minister would continue to support her were there to be further revelations about the way she had handled her immigration brief, the PMOS said that it wasn’t his policy to answer hypothetical questions. Questioned about the latest allegations, the PMOS said that the BRACE system or similar systems, as a method for clearing backlogs, had been applied by successive Administrations. Indeed, all Governments, going back at least as far as the 1980s, had had to address this problem and had followed similar procedures. Ms Hughes’s actions had therefore been justified. Asked to explain the difference between this case and Steve Moxon’s allegations relating to the IND in Sheffield, the PMOS said that as he understood it, the measures to tackle the backlog of applications in Sheffield were being applied to new cases, whereas the cases relating to the allegations over the weekend were older.
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