Downing Street Says » Tuition Fees

» Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Tuition Fees

Asked if the Prime Minister had any meetings planned with student groups, the PMS said that she was not aware of any meetings today, but of course the Prime Minister had been talking to people in the past few weeks regarding this issue.

Asked what the Prime Minister’s position was on people in receipt of the payroll not voting for Government policy, the PMS said that she would not preclude what was a hypothetical situation.

Asked if the Coalition Document included Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS’s) as part of collective responsibility, the PMS referred to the Ministerial Code. She said that PPS’s were not members of the Government, however they should ensure that no conflict arose, or appeared to arise between their role as a PPS and their private interests. PPS’s were expected to support the Government in important divisions in the House. No PPS who voted against the Government could retain his or her position.

Asked if that meant that Ministers could be sacked if they voted against the Government, the PMS said that she had not said that and referred the journalist to the Ministerial Code, which set out the principle of collective responsibility, save where it was explicitly set aside, applied to all Government Ministers. The principle of collective responsibility, save where it was explicitly set aside, required that Ministers should be able to express their views frankly in the expectation that they could argue freely in private whilst maintaining a united front when decisions were reached.

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