Downing Street Says

» Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Tote

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) began by clarifying something he had said in that morning’s lobby briefing regarding the Tote and the 2005 Manifesto. The PMS had said this morning that from memory, the 2005 Manifesto had said that if it were not possible to find a solution to the sale of the Tote which involved the sale to the Racing Trust, the Government would seek an alternative commercial option and reinvest some of the money back into the racing industry.

Having double-checked that, the 2005 Manifesto had said that having passed the necessary legislation, the Government remained committed to completing the sale of the Tote to the Racing Trust. However the Government had said in July 2004, that were it not possible to sell the tote to the Racing Trust, we would sell it commercially with 50% of the proceeds going to racing and Jerry Sutcliffe reiterated this in the Westminster Hall on the 21st November 2007.

Asked whether the Government would concede that it hadn’t managed to keep that promise, the PMS said we would not accept that because what was said in 2005 was that we were committed to a sale to the Racing Trust. However the Government had said in 2004 and after the 2005 election in November 2007 that should it not be possible to sell to the Racing Trust, we would find an alternative solution that involved a commercial sale. The key point was that we were reinvesting 50% of the sale proceeds back into the racing industry so that they would benefit.

Put that that wasn’t actually said in the 2005 Manifesto, the PMS reiterated that the Government had said in the Manifesto that it remained committed to completing the sale of the Tote to a Racing Trust. That reflected the fact that our first preference was clearly a sale to the Racing Trust.

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» Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Tote

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