» Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Prime Minister Siniora

Asked why Prime Minister Siniora had been to visit the Chancellor yesterday, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that he did not know. Prime Minister Siniora would speak to the Prime Minister about the national dialogue in Lebanon, as well as our continuing pressure on Syria.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Transition

Asked about the Prime Minister's talks with senior allies about the transition, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had, himself, said yesterday that he would be getting on with the business of government and this was what he was doing. As such he, the PMOS, had nothing further to add. Asked if it was wrong to suggest he would be speaking with senior colleagues, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister spoke with senior colleagues all the time and he did not brief on such conversations. The Prime Minister's primary focus would remain on getting on with the job he was elected to do.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Prime Minister

Asked if it was a correct interpretation that the next Labour Party conference would be the Prime Minister's last one, and that he would leave office in 2007, the PMOS reminded people what the Prime Minister actually said yesterday was that he was not going to give a timetable and he had given the reasons for that. What the Prime Minister wanted to do was to get on with the business of government, implementing the manifesto commitments that he was elected on a year ago to do.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Deputy Prime Minister

Asked if there were any further details on how the Deputy Prime Minister would answer questions in the House of Commons, the PMOS said, as he had in the morning briefing, that because of the creation of two new departments there needed to be a new rota of parliamentary questions. That was currently being looked and the John Prescott would answer questions as the DPM as part of that new arrangement. The Deputy Prime Minister would be accountable to Parliament and answer questions in the House but details were still being worked out.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Deputy Prime Minister

Asked whether the Deputy Prime Minister would face questions in the House, the PMOS said that Mr. Prescott would be accountable to Parliament. Because of the two new departments, and the changes in his role, it would take some time to organise.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Lebanon

Asked what had been discussed, the PMOS said they had discussed the National Dialogue on Lebanon, which we very much supported. They had discussed the continuing investigation into the murder of former Prime Minister Hariri. In addition the role of Syria had been discussed and the need to keep the pressure on. Asked if the Prime Minister thought the UN should take a harder line on Syria, the PMOS said that was a matter for the UN to decide. The Prime Minister believed that the pressure should be kept on Syria and we had always been at the fore of that process.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Letter to President Bush

Asked about a letter from the Iranian President to President Bush, the PMOS said that as the Americans had not yet received the letter, it was difficult to have a view on it.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

Third Foreign Policy Speech

Asked about the third speech in the Prime Minister's trilogy of foreign policy speeches, the PMOS said it would still be in America and still not be before too long but we did not yet have a fixed date. What we would wait to see first was the formation of a new government in Iraq as it would be in the context of that that the Prime Minister would make his third speech.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Monday, May 8, 2006

Prime Minister

Put that the Prime Minister had said today that he wanted to give his successor time to "bed in" and did this mean that he would now not serve a full third term, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said if people looked back at what the Prime Minister actually had said on the day that he announced that he would not be fighting a fourth election, he clearly indicated then that obviously, the hand over was a matter that would be have to be dealt with. The Prime Minister had said consistently now since the General Election that he wanted to hand over in an orderly way, and he was saying nothing different today.

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Minister briefings

Put that as the Ministers involved in the briefings this week would only have been in their jobs for a few days, were the briefings therefore what the Prime Minister thought instead, the PMOS said that in terms of setting out the priorities and how they were to be implemented, it was a work in progress. It would therefore be very much their take and the Prime Minister's on what their priorities were. 

Briefing took place at 8:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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