Downing Street Says » 2006

» Wednesday, May 10, 2006

PMQs

Asked about the Prime Minister's reaction to today's PMQs and did he think that they had gone well, and was he taken aback by the lack of support from the backbenchers, the PMOS said that he was not going to get into party matters, as people knew. The Prime Minister had acknowledged today, as he had also done during his recent press conference that everybody knew that it had been a difficult time. The key question was: was the a Prime Minister and the Government still delivering on the election manifesto it was elected on a year ago? The PMOS said whether it was on health, on education, where the Prime Minister would argue very strongly that the reform process was up and running, and needed to be kept going, and where hard decisions, such as tuition fees and foundation hospitals and City Academies were paying off. The PMOS also said it was issues such as Europe and today we had clear evidence that the vision the Prime Minister had set out was paying off, and was being driven through. We also had upcoming issues, especially in the field of pensions and energy where again, there will be hard decisions that have to be taken in the interests of the country, and the Prime Minister was quite prepared to do that.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Ruth Kelly

Asked if the Prime Minister would consider changing Ruth Kelly's role in terms of being in charge of equality given her views on gay rights, the PMOS said that the short answer to that question was no. Ruth Kelly had said repeatedly yesterday that she was committed to the equality agenda and to fighting discrimination of any kind in the workplace. It was a matter that she led on when she was in the Cabinet Office and there was no question of her absolute commitment. She had also expressed a belief and support for the collective responsibility principle in Cabinet and she fully supported Government policy.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

European Union

Put that it sounded as if the Prime Minister was "pretty desperate to lay claim to ownership" to something that was going to happen anyway, the PMOS replied that first of all, the Prime Minister was the person who made the speech in Europe, and even at the time, people remarked that it was going to change the agenda in Europe. What our EU Presidency showed was that it had changed the agenda, and the question people asked in June was: very good speech, but was it just rhetoric? The PMOS said that the EU Commission paper today showed that it was reality. What it also showed was the growing consensus that there was in Europe was on the agenda that we set out at Hampton Court on issues such as energy, which was not on the agenda before.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Prime Minister

Asked for a reaction to remarks by John Denham that the Government seemed more out of touch with the voters than ever, the PMOS said that it would be entirely wrong for him to comment on John Denham per se, he was entitled to his views. However he would simply say that the Prime Minister had been elected a year ago on a program of reform. That program of reform covered areas such as education, the health service and protecting this country from threats such as terror. On all those matters the Prime Minister believed that he was reflecting the public's concerns, both to improve public services as well as invest in them and equally to protect this country from terrorist threats. Some people had difficulties with that and the Prime Minister recognised that but he believed that that was what the public wanted.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

John Prescott

Asked if there was any information about the Cabinet Committees that John Prescott would be sharing, the PMOS replied that if people looked back at any other previous reshuffle, there was always a timelag between when a reshuffle had happened, and when the Cabinet Committees were announced. That was because the process of changing the committee's system could not be started to reflect the reshuffle's new priorities until it had been announced. The PMOS said that the reshuffle was on Friday, today was Wednesday, and things did not move that fast.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Jane Kennedy

Asked to explain the Prime Minister's stumble about Jane Kennedy today at PMQs, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister respected Ministers and ex-Ministers privacy in terms of what their conversations with him were.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Chief Whip

Asked how the Prime Minister rated the performance of his new Chief Whip, the PMOS said that he had a very high regard for her.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Iranian President’s letter

Asked about a letter sent from the Iranian President to President Bush, the PMOS said that the US Government had expressed its view, and that was all that mattered. The key question was not a letter, but rather, it was whether the Iranian Government recognised the international will as expressed at the UN by the united world. The answer to that so far seemed to be no.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

7/7 compensation

Put that the Prime Minister indicated today that there might be some extra compensation for victims of the 7/7 bombs last year, and was that likely to be announced in the future, the PMOS said that he did not want to pre-judge what the Home Office and the Home Secretary would say. The Prime Minister did recognise that the circumstances of 7/7 were exceptional, but people should wait and see what the Home Secretary said.

Briefing took place at 10:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Further Reshuffle Appointments

Asked whether Ruth Kelly's comments on protecting private housing space had the full backing of Downing Street, the PMOS said that there was always a balance to be struck between proper planning procedures and the need to ensure development. It was worth looking at the reasons why we needed 200 000 new homes. It was primarily because of a change in demographics not migration. Migration only counted for 18% of the total. The change in demographics was accounted for by a growth in the number of elderly, separated people and the growth in single people who wanted to live on their own. Asked about her refusal to say whether she thought homosexuality was a sin and her refusal to comment on whether same sex couples should be allowed to adopt and that she would continue to vote with her conscience, the PMOS said that what had been left out of that was that she had repeatedly said that she not only recognised but supported decisions taken by the government in this area. She had also repeatedly said that she was totally opposed to discrimination on any grounds whatsoever. Ruth Kelly had also pointed out that she very much pushed the equality agenda when at the Cabinet Office.

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

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» Wednesday, May 10, 2006

PMQs

Ruth Kelly

European Union

Prime Minister

John Prescott

Jane Kennedy

Chief Whip

Iranian President’s letter

7/7 compensation

» Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Further Reshuffle Appointments

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