Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Reshuffle, Smoking, Leadership, EU Constitution, Respect Action Plan and Iraq
Reshuffle
Asked if there was likely to be a reshuffle this week, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said he was not anticipating anything today. It would happen when it happened. His line on this had not changed since before Christmas.
Smoking
Asked if the Prime Minister was going to allow a free vote on smoking in the health bill, the PMOS said that the position on smoking was as it had been before Christmas. Asked if the Prime Minister had been signalling in his Observer interview that he was relaxed about it, the PMOS said that what he had said in the Observer had echoed precisely what he had said at the press conference just before Christmas.
Leadership
Put to him that there had appeared to be a change in the Prime Minister’s answer to the question by Andrew Marr about the length of his leadership when he had refused to reiterate the full third term phrase, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister’s position remained the same. The Prime Minister had expressed that best himself.
He had repeatedly referred back to what he had said before. If there was any reticence in the matter it was simply that he did not want to keep reporting of this going because he believed what people wanted to know was what he was doing in Government rather than any speculation about his future.
EU Constitution
Asked whether the Government thought the EU Constitution needed a drastic rewrite, the PMOS said that the period of reflection would continue until June. It was better to allow that to happen. The Prime Minister had set out in his FT article in June that he believed that the people of Europe actually wanted was for the leaders to concentrate, having now achieved the budget which was no small thing, on what mattered to them which was improving the economic performance of Europe, addressing issues such as energy, which was becoming more relevant by the day and which the Prime Minister, himself, had prefigured in Hampton Court by putting it firmly on the agenda.
There were also other issues such as immigration. Those were the issues that the Prime Minister believed that the people of Europe wanted the focus on.
Respect Action Plan
Asked if the speech tomorrow was the main event, the PMOS said that the plan rolled together the work of seven Whitehall departments and would see sixteen Ministers travelling around the UK highlighting new policies. Asked whether there would be new policy announced, the PMOS said there would be genuine developments and people should judge them tomorrow. There would be new policy and measures that had pulled together work from seven departments.
If anyone had any idea how challenging that was it would speak for itself. Asked if it was true that Whitehall departments had been reluctant to contribute money to the respect action plan, the PMOS said that the Home Office had put out a statement on Saturday night responding to and correcting the News of the World story. It was wrong. We would set out tomorrow how it would be funded. Asked why it was described as an action plan, the PMOS said it was because we were bringing together the work of seven different departments and therefore many of these things were not about legislating but did need actual practice.
Iraq
Asked about General Rose’s comments on the Today programme that the Prime Minister should be impeached, the PMOS said that General Rose was entitled to his view. Equally the Government was perfectly entitled to point out that there had been three democratic elections in Iraq last year for the first time in well over a generation.
In the last of those 70% of the population of Iraq had expressed their view, which was considerable progress from what had gone on before. In terms of the reasons why we had gone to war they had been investigated by four inquiries including two select committees of Parliament. So the matter had been well scrutinised. In terms of the outcome, we were seeing the formation of a democratically elected government, despite the ongoing difficulties, and that spoke for itself. Asked whether it was normal for Generals to suggest impeachment, the PMOS said that General Rose had been retired for quite some time now.
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