Downing Street Says » Pre-charge Detention

Asked if the Prime Minister would resign if he lost the vote on 42 days, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) replied that the Prime Minister answered that question in the press conference following his meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister earlier. He said that this would be treated as a normal vote in the same way as previously votes on issues of this kind had been treated.

Put that Tony Blair did not resign over 90 days, and asked if the Prime Minister would do the same if he lost, the PMS replied that as the Prime Minister said in the press conference following his meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, this would be treated as a normal vote.

Put that the Prime Minister cited in support of 42 days, the experiences of the Security Services, and asked if 42 days was the advice or a request of the Security Services, the PMS replied that as the Prime Minister said in his article in the Times, 42 days was the judgement that the Government had reached in terms of what should be the maximum limit on the basis of detailed consultation with among other groups the police.

Asked if that meant that there had not been a specific request from MI5 saying that they wanted longer, the PMS replied that he did not say this, but people would not expect him to comment on internal discussions between the Security Services and the Government. All he would say was to refer people back to what the Prime Minister said in his article in the Times this morning.

Asked what the Prime Minister was doing this evening, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had meetings in Downing Street, as had always been the plan.

Asked if there were receptions or Ministerial meetings, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had meetings with his ministerial colleagues and others.

Asked if the Prime Minister had written to concerned Labour MPs about the 42 day issue, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister wrote to all sorts of people about all sorts of issues all the time, but there had not been a general round-robin letter or anything of that kind.

Asked if there was a specific letter, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister would normally speak to, write to, communicate with, and speak on the phone with MPs all of the time as you would expect. We would not normally get into the specifics of that, but as we had said there had not been any general letter as there was a couple of months ago for example on the Embryology Bill where he did write to Labour MPS, as he did also on MPs expenses – there had not been anything of that nature.

Asked when the amendment would be tabled, the PMS replied that people should wait and see.

Asked if two days were being set aside for the debate, the PMS replied that the exact Parliamentary arrangements would be a matter for the business managers. But it would not be unusual for a Bill of this complexity to be debated for more than one day, but he would check.

Asked if the Prime Minister was optimistic of winning the vote, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had always believed very strongly in the strength of his position. As we had consistently made clear throughout, the differences between the various participants in this debate were much less in the view of the Government than was sometimes made out. There was a general consensus that there were circumstances where it may been necessary to detain people beyond 28 days, and then the debate becomes about what were the right parliamentary and judicial safeguards that need to be in place in order to protect civil liberties.

Asked if the Prime Minister was looking forward to the debate, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister looked forward to any debate. He set out his position clearly this morning, he had done this previously, he had been talking about this today, and he had always felt confident in the strength of the arguments.

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» Monday, June 2, 2008

Pre-charge Detention

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