Downing Street Says

Asked if there were any other discussions in Cabinet about recent events i.e. non-election, the PMS said that the discussion at Cabinet was about Government business; having dealt with Parliamentary business they then went on to discuss the PBR.

Asked if there were any discussions in Cabinet on forthcoming business re Europe, the PMS said that obviously there had been discussions about Europe at previous Cabinets but that there was no substantive discussion about Europe this morning. He went on to say that with regard to Parliamentary business, what normally would happen was that the Chief Whip would set out what the Parliamentary votes and whipping would be for the week ahead.

Put that the treaty was the same as the constitution and asked if it had come up in discussion at Cabinet, the PMS said that it was not discussed this morning. He went on to say that the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee had made clear on the radio that what the report actually said was "what mattered was whether the new treaty produced an effect which was substantially equivalent to the Constitutional Treaty; the Committee considered that for those countries which had not requested derogations or opt-outs from the full range of agreements in the Treaty, i.e. not including the UK, it does".

Put that the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee had also said that the red lines could not be guarded, the PMS said the Prime Minister had made very clear yesterday in the press conference, his determination to secure those red lines.

Asked if what the Prime Minister had said yesterday was decided before the Committee had come up with its conclusion, the PMS said what the Prime Minister had said yesterday still applied today; we set out our red lines; we had a number of opt-outs which derived from those red lines that meant that the Treaty as it would apply to the UK was different to the Treaty as it applied to other countries. Therefore, simply comparing one treaty with another treaty was not the right comparison in terms of what that meant for the UK because the treaty that applied to other countries was not the treaty that applied to the UK. The Prime Minister had made very clear that he was determined that we achieve our red lines and he also said yesterday that if we did not achieve them there would either be a British veto or a referendum.

Asked if there was any information regarding non-domicile residents in the CSR, the PMS said that it was best to wait for the statement this afternoon.

Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken in Cabinet on PBR, the PMS said he had but that he would not be briefing on words from the Prime Minister.

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» Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Cabinet

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