» Thursday, May 3, 2007

Prime Minister

Asked whether the Prime Minister had voted today, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said the Prime Minister's local Government services were taken in London, but there were no London elections to vote in. Put that you were allowed to be registered in more than one place, but just not allowed to vote twice on the same day, the PMOS said the Prime Minister believed he should vote where his services were taken and that had been his practice throughout his premiership. Asked whether the Prime Minister would stay up and watch the polls coming through, the PMOS said he suspected as always he had a busy day tomorrow, therefore it would be a balance of on the one hand wanting to know the results and the other hand wanting to be fresh for tomorrow. Asked whether the Prime Minister had any public engagements tomorrow, the PMOS said the Prime Minister would be working in Downing Street.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) started with comment on the UVF statement this morning. The PMOS said that we welcomed this announcement, but as with statements from other paramilitary groups in the past we will wait to see it delivered in action. What it underlined however, once again, was that the peace process has worked. People can see it working in action. Next week's events will underline that further.

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

Prime Minister

Asked to clarify the position of the Prime Minister with regard to being a Member of Parliament (MP) as reported on the Press Association newswire, the PMOS said the announcement next week would be solely about the Prime Minister as leader of the Labour Party. The Prime Minister has made no decision whatsoever to stand down as an MP and very firmly remains an MP for Sedgefield and proud of it.

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

Cabinet

Asked about what had been discussed at Cabinet, the PMOS said that Cabinet this morning heard a report from the Attorney General on Operation Crevice and he stressed again how successful it had been. He underlined that it showed the very successful way in which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) worked with the police to get these prosecutions. The Attorney General had also underlined how the operation saved many, many lives and therefore the united view of the Cabinet was that the security services and the police should be very firmly congratulated on the outcome of the operation.

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

Afghanistan

Asked if there were any plans to increase the efforts to spare civilian casualties, the PMOS said that we always want to avoid civilian casualties and big efforts are made to avoid civilian casualties, unfortunately that is not always possible but every effort is made. A great effort is made by our troops to do so. Asked if there was any recognition that NATO was right in its views on casualties, the PMOS said that casualties are always regrettable in their own right, but there is obviously a political impact as well. Equally however, there is a real battle going on in parts of Afghanistan to keep the government protected from the Taliban. That has made real progress, not least in Sanguin Valley in the past few days and the need to keep that military progress going is recognised at the same time as needing to make political progress.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

US Visa Restrictions

Asked what the Government's response was to the claim that second and third generation UK born Pakistanis are being vetted more closely when they apply for visas, the PMOS said that the US Embassy here has denied the story and we have denied it as well. If you take both denials together what we have is a fairly comprehensive denial of the story. Asked if the story was totally wrong, the PMOS said if it wasn't local government election day he would have said rubbish. Asked if there was any smoke beneath the rubbish, the PMOS said he'd never underestimated the ability of the Independent to create smoke, but there was no underlying line, so people were genuinely scratching their heads at the story.

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

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