Downing Street Says » 2004 » May

» Wednesday, May 5, 2004

Iraq

Put to him that the Prime Minister had seemed to go a little further on the question of troop numbers in Iraq during PMQs today, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that our position on this matter had not changed since last week. We remained in discussion with our Coalition partners and were keeping the matter under constant review. Asked if an announcement was expected in the next day or so, the PMOS repeated that the matter was kept under constant review. Various options were being considered as part of that. Put to him that the Prime Minister had spoken specifically today about the possibility of providing 'more troops' - a phrase he hadn't used before, the PMOS said that as he had told journalists repeatedly last week, we kept this issue under constant review and were in discussion with our Coalition allies. That remained the case. Put to him that last week he could have been talking about fewer troops in Iraq, whereas the Prime Minister had definitely gone further today by specifically referring to 'more troops', the PMOS said that when he had been asked questions about this issue last week, he had been under no delusion that he was being asked about fewer troops. His answer then was the same as his answer today.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Decent homes

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) drew journalists' attention to an announcement by the Deputy Prime Minister today regarding decent homes. He would announce fifty eight new schemes to make 170,000 homes more decent, i.e. in a reasonable state of repair, with reasonably modern facilities and services and with a reasonable degree of heating and insulation. Since 1997, 1 million more homes were now in that category.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Iraq pictures

Asked if the Prime Minister would follow the example of President Bush and agree to be interviewed by Arab media, the PMOS said he was not aware of any plans for him to do so at this stage. We had made our position very clear on this issue on Friday. In the first instance, it was important for the allegations to be investigated properly. If they were found to be correct, we had made it absolutely clear that we did not condone such actions, but condemned them.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Stephen Lawrence

Asked if he would agree that the parents of Stephen Lawrence had been let down by the CPS decision to rule out the prospect of a fresh prosecution over Stephen's murder, the PMOS said that the Met Police were holding a press conference on this issue shortly. It was only right that they should be given the opportunity to respond to the announcement in the first instance.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

The unofficial site which lets you comment on the UK Prime Minister's official briefings. About us...

» Wednesday, May 5, 2004

Iraq

Decent homes

Iraq pictures

Stephen Lawrence

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries