Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Education, Leo Blair, Schools White Paper and Reshuffle
Education
Asked if at any time Ruth Kelly had offered her resignation, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he was not aware of any such occasion. The Prime Minister had himself made it clear the issue had not arisen. Asked if there was definitely still a Ruth Kelly statement in light of the one now slated for Charles Clarke, the PMOS said that Ruth Kelly’s statement was definitely happening.
It would be the occasion on which to address the matter in the round. As he had said earlier in the week we were aware that people had wanted this statement sooner, but Ruth Kelly had quite rightly taken the decision to approach this in a calm and methodical way in order to produce a comprehensive report which addressed all the issues rather than one that addressed them in part or in a piecemeal fashion. It was evitable that there would be knock on issues for others and they would be dealt with tomorrow as well. But it was important first and foremost that Ruth Kelly gave her overview of the situation and any following action that may be necessary.
Asked about the timing of the statements, the PMOS said that Ruth Kelly would be first to speak tomorrow after Business Questions. Asked if he was suggesting that there might well be statements from other departments that needed to take action, the PMOS said he had suggested that this area covered other departments and if there were necessary clarifications for other departments they would be dealt with also tomorrow. He was not promising other statements; rather he had simply been acknowledging that there were implications for other departments.
Asked if there was any more on the Menzies Campbell question on the three year delay, the PMOS said that the reality was not quite as was suggested, but it was better if this was addressed as part of the overall report tomorrow. Asked if he could say anymore about the Prime Minster’s comments saying that Ruth Kelly would come back with further safeguards, the PMOS said no. There had been a series of quite legitimate questions asked and Ruth Kelly would address them in her statement tomorrow. Quite rightly the best place to address those questions was on the floor of the House of Commons.
Asked how many of Bichard’s recommendations had been implemented, the PMOS said, again, the best place to detail that was on the floor of the house tomorrow. What would be clear however was that this was not just a matter started in the last two weeks. There had been a lot of work preparatory done on Bichard’s recommendations. Asked if there was any concern that Ruth Kelly had raised expectations about giving details of who was out there, the PMOS said the important thing was that we were seen tomorrow to have made a very thorough investigation of this matter. He had no doubt in his mind that a thorough investigation had been undertaken and that would be seen tomorrow when people could judge that for themselves.
Asked how confident the Government was that, in the words of the Chancellor, "this would be sorted out", the PMOS said that he was confident that the time that had been taken to address this issue had resulted in the fundamental review that Ruth Kelly had promised. Such a fundamental review would not have been possible if we had rushed the matter.
Asked if by the end of tomorrow if people would have been told how many registered offenders worked in schools, the PMOS said the detail would be announced tomorrow and it was better that he did not get drawn into speculation about tomorrow’s statement. Put to the PMOS that there was a clear expectation that Ruth Kelly would bring forward that detail, the PMOS said that we had acknowledged there were legitimate questions and Ruth Kelly would address those. What he would not be do was provide a tick list of what she would say specifically.
Leo Blair
Asked if there was anything in the Adam Boulton claim on Sky that it was a Downing Street wheeze, the PMOS said first and foremost that he genuinely wished he did not have to answer this question. But we had pointed out to Sky that their allegation was 100% wrong. There was no evidence for it. Therefore it was up to Sky to justify why it had made such a claim. That was the polite version. The impolite version was for Adam Boulton’s ears only.
Asked to confirm by Sky if there had been lengthy discussions yesterday afternoon between Downing Street and The Sun Newspaper, the PMOS said that we did not discuss security matters and this story illustrated precisely why we did not. Would we have rather not had this story appear. Answer: Yes. Did that in any way translate into evidence that we had in anyway leaked the story. Answer: No. If Sky had had the decency and professionalism to check with us before it had made the allegation they would have been told that. They had not done so.
Asked in that case if he was saying there had been no discussions with the Sun trying to persuade them not to run it on security grounds, the PMOS said he would not detail the nature of any discussions between No10 and the Sun, just as he would not do so with any other organisation. What he would say, however, was that it was clearly a story we would have preferred not to have run.
Schools White Paper
Asked if the Prime Minister were disappointed that Lord Kinnock planned to come out against the white paper tomorrow, the PMOS said that Lord Kinnock would do what Lord Kinnock did. It was best for people not to comment or speculate on what someone might say, but rather comment on what they had said. People should wait and see. To respond in general terms about the education white paper, last week’s NAO report set out precisely why the status quo was not an option. There were great improvements but the process was far from complete.
Therefore we had to build on what had worked in the past five years and that meant continuing the process of reform. This was the basis on which the white paper was built. Along with improvements in areas such as discipline. The Prime Minister was completely committed to arguing that case. Put to the PMOS that the league tables due to be published tonight would be bad for City Academies, the PMOS said first of all that he had not seen the tables, but people should bear at the back of their minds that city academies were specifically set up in deprived areas and as such the important thing was whether they were improving on the performance from before the academy was established.
Reshuffle
Asked if they could expect any government changes this week, the PMOS said that it was quite a busy week already and as with other questions about reshuffles he would refer them to his previous non-answers.
delicious
digg
facebook
