Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Afghanistan, Deputy Prime Minister, Information Commissioner, Extradition and Liaison Committee-Muslim Engagement
Afghanistan
Asked whether the announcement that British troops would receive anything they needed had been cleared with the Treasury, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said, as the Prime Minister had this morning, that we had not yet received any request for extra resources. It was still being worked through the system. If and when we did we would consider it and supply whatever was necessary. Asked what the Government’s policy was on the poppy harvest, the PMOS said we had well worked out plans for encouraging farmers to eradicate poppies and generate alternate incomes, which they could talk to DfID about, but you had to have a security environment to encourage that. If you did not have that security environment then people would find it more difficult to have viable alternative forms of income. This was why security and the future of the economy went hand in hand.
Put that Tom Watson had said it was important to wean people off the poppy economy but not too fast, the PMOS said that it was all part of having a controlled environment in which it was possible to do these things. Part of that was to have proper security. In that regard he had noticed that people had been quoting one sentence from what John Reid had said at the time of deployment, but people should look back at the entire quote where they would see that clipping the quote out of context in that way was deeply misleading to say the least. He had also said that if it became necessary we would not only defend ourselves but also where appropriate we would go on the offensive. People should quote the entire context not just that one part they liked.
Deputy Prime Minister
Asked whether the Prime Minister was satisfied that there was no conflict of interest over casinos, the PMOS said that he had not seen the latest allegations from the opposition so he could not comment on them. The Deputy Prime Minister had put out a statement on Saturday in relation to these matters and we had nothing further to add that statement. Asked whether the Prime Minister had asked Sir John Bourne to look into it, the PMOS said no. Asked whether the Prime Minister had met Mr Anschutz, the PMOS said that he was not aware of any meetings. Asked whether the Prime Minister still had full confidence in the Deputy Prime Minister, the PMOS said that the answer was the same as the last time he had been asked, which was yes.
Asked whether the Prime Minster was involved in the matter, the PMOS said that the Deputy Prime Minister had put out a statement, the Prime Minister retained full confidence in him and we had nothing to further to add. Put that the Conservatives had written to the Cabinet Secretary, the PMOS said that he was not the spokesman for the Cabinet Secretary, journalists should speak to the Cabinet Office.
Information Commissioner
Asked whether Downing Street had any plans to publish details following the Information Commissioner’s suggestion that the Prime Minister’s meetings with Rupert Murdoch could be listed, the PMOS said that he did not think that was official yet but we would obviously consider carefully what the Commissioner said. Asked why the government was resisting, the PMOS said that it was important that the Prime Minister be able to have private conversations with individuals, as had been the case for any Prime Minister. Put that it was the fact of the meeting not the conversation that was of public interest, the PMOS said that it was still important that the Prime Minister could have private conversations with individuals without having them listed every time, and that included the media, even the ones present in this briefing room.
Extradition
Asked whether the Prime Minister was prepared to suspend the extradition treaty with the US until Senate ratification, the PMOS pointed out that we had the exact same situation with the EU as with the US, as such that was the spirit with which we approached this issue. Put that it was not reciprocal with the US, the PMOS said that we had expressed our view in the hope that it would be ratified. People should not pretend that this was a US specific issue as we had the same relationship with the rest of the EU.
Asked whether the Prime Minister had looked into the case of the Natwest 3 extradition, the PMOS said that he could not comment on a specific case, but in generality people could be extradited to the EU in the same way as they could to the US. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that we sought to observe the usual legal sensitivities around cases and not interfere in legal processes. There were legal processes that had to be gone through and they were ongoing.
Liaison Committee-Muslim Engagement
Asked why the Prime Minster had taken a belligerent tone as Muslim representative’s reaction to those comments seemed to show they had not helped improve relations, the PMOS said that the response from within the Muslim community was not as uniform as was being suggested. The Prime Minister’s comments should not be a surprise as we had ruled out a public inquiry in the past. When you had 70 ongoing investigations, as Peter Clarke from the Metropolitan Police had confirmed yesterday, the argument for not diverting attention, energy and resources away from those investigations was a powerful one. In terms of what we had done there was no point hiding the fact that we strongly disagreed with the suggestion that nothing had been done in the last year. Of the 64 recommendations that the various working parties had come up with 27 were for government. Two had been completed: One, extending provision of equal opportunities and recent equality law to cover discrimination on the grounds of faith and two, ensuring that the youth green paper was accessible to Muslim youth. There were another 17 of the government recommendations either in progress or already happening. This included an FCO and Home Office programme for young Muslims to visit Islamic countries.
We had expanded the minority ethnic achievement project. We were moving to improve RE teaching. We were establishing a steering group at DfES to look into Islamaphobia. Outside the government recommendations we had community groups against extremism set up in places like Leicester, Redbridge and Dudley. Of the nine recommendations from the young people’s working group eight had been implemented. The community itself had last week launched the Mosque and Imams Advisory Board. John Denham had asked about the Commission on Integration and Cohesion and we had announced the chairman, Dara Singh last week. 18 influential Muslim Scholars had spoken to audiences on the Scholars road shows where we estimated that up to 30,000 people had attended. The prison service was doing more to ensure young Muslims were better prepared for going back into the community. So there was a lot of activity going on within government and the wider community. The Prime Minister was also clear that government could only do so much and that the Muslim community must take up the slack. In certain places it was but he would like to see it doing more.
Put that John Denham’s concern was that there was not an action plan to check off against, the PMOS said that we disagreed. Part of setting up the Department for Communities and Local Government had added focus to this in the areas that came under Ruth Kelly’s responsibility. Phil Woolas had also indicated his role in that too. It was important that we did not divert attention away from the central issues about the need to tackle extremism into infighting about how well we were doing. The reality was progress was being made. More progress needed to be made, but we needed to concentrate on the objective rather than the unnecessary diversions.
Asked whether the Prime Minister thought it was an issue of leadership within the Muslim community, the PMOS said that was a matter for the Muslim community to choose it’s own leaders and it was not wise for people outside that community to offer a commentary on that. The Prime Minister’s central starting point on this issue was that the majority of Muslims were moderate and did not condone extremism or terrorism. It was important, however, to mobilise that moderate opinion to express that view. The Prime Minister believed that the community needed to do more to take on extremism in its midst. He had been saying this for some time and it had been one of the themes of his major foreign policy speech in March.
Asked how the Prime Minister responded to those who pointed to the Bloody Sunday inquiry, the PMOS said that the reasons for setting up the Bloody Sunday inquiry were relevant to the peace process. It was a different time and era. We all had to recognise that the inquiry for whatever reasons had taken a long time and had cost a lot of money. The central point, however, was that you had to ask what would any 7/7 inquiry tell us that we did not already know and when you weighed that against the diversion of money and resources was it worthwhile. This was why the Prime Minister believed that an inquiry was not justified.
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