Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: EU Constitution Referenda, George Galloway and Women’s Minister.
EU Constitution Referenda
Asked to clarify whether the Government would go ahead with a referendum on the EU constitution if the French and Dutch people voted against it, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that we should not get into hypothetical questions. The Prime Minister has said that there would be a referendum on the EU constitution. The position remained unchanged. He wouldn’t speculate about what happens if countries vote against rather than for, that was up to them. There were campaigns underway and it was a very wise convention that Government’s didn’t intervene in other countries electoral campaigns. Let us see what happened.
Put to him that the Prime Minister had said that you could only have a referendum if there were a constitution to have a referendum on and if that meant that if others didn’t sign up they would have to go back to the drawing board, the PMOS said that sounded like a more sophisticated way of asking the same hypothetical question. It was perfectly legitimate for journalists to try and push the Government to give answers to these questions. However we should wait for the people of France and the Netherlands to vote and see where we were. Put to him that Patricia Hewitt had said that the Government would hit the ground running after the election in terms of a campaign for a "yes" vote, the PMOS said that he thought it was a statement of the blindingly obvious that if there were referendums going on in France and the Netherlands, then we should wait for the results of those because that would establish the context of any campaign. We should wait and see what actually happened and not get ahead of ourselves.
Asked when a referendum might be held, the PMOS said that would be announced at the appropriate time.
Asked if the Prime Minister had had any discussions with other European leaders ahead of the presidency, the PMOS said not at this stage, but obviously over the coming weeks we would be talking to others both about the EU and G8 presidencies. That shouldn’t come as any surprise.
George Galloway
Asked what the Prime Minister thought about allegations against George Galloway, the PMOS said that was a matter for the Senate Committee and Mr Galloway, and if journalists thought he was going to get into the middle of that, they had another thing coming.
Women’s Minister
Asked if, given the gender gap in pay, it was an embarrassment to the Government that the Minister for Women would be unpaid, the PMOS said that he had dealt with this matter earlier in the week. As he pointed out then, there had always been unpaid Government ministers because of the cap on the size of Government. What was important was that previously, Jackie Smith had been sharing the responsibilities of Women’s Minister with other responsibilities she had. Meg Munn would be able to devote her time solely to being Women’s Minister. Furthermore Tessa Jowell would be representing the equality and equal opportunities agenda at the Cabinet table. The agenda was being addressed in a serious way.
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