Downing Street Says

The Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) said that at Cabinet this morning there was a discussion of the Constitutional Renewal agenda and an update on the economy led my Liam Byrne, the new Chief Secretary. It was agreed that a further Cabinet meeting would be held on Friday for the duration of the morning, which would also include a Political Cabinet meeting, in which they would discuss the Government s future plans for building a better Britain.

Asked if the Cabinet meeting on Friday was at the behest of Cabinet members, the PMS said no; this was something that the Prime Minister had been thinking of doing for some time.

Asked if the Cabinet meeting on Friday was part of a more consultative and open form of Government, the PMS said that we wanted to be as consultative as possible. Jack Straw had been saying yesterday that the Prime Minister was consultative with his Cabinet colleagues and in Mr Straw s own words, more so than the his predecessor. There were issues that the Government needed to address in terms of how to move forward the next stage of Government policy across a range of fronts and coherently bring together the Government s plans for building a stronger and better Britain.

Asked what was said about the economy and the Constitutional Reform agenda at Cabinet, the PMS said that the Prime Minister went through the issues that would be addressed at the National Democratic Renewal Council (NDRC) meeting later today and that Liam Byrne gave an update on the economy in the Chancellor s absence. Lord Mandelson also gave an update on the latest state of play regarding various sectors of the economy that came under his department.

Asked what the Prime Minister s mood was in Cabinet, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was focused and determined to ensure that, despite a lot focus on Westminster issues recently, the Government pushed ahead with its agenda for policies that would affect the whole country.

Asked if the Cabinet meeting on Friday was the start of a revamp of domestic policy in response to criticism from some MPs, the PMS said that he wouldn t characterise it in those terms; this was about how we moved to the next stage, building on what we had already achieved. It was an opportunity for the Cabinet to meet for a slightly longer period of time in advance of further policy announcements expected over the next few weeks.

Asked about Liam Byrne s presentation on the economy, the PMS said that Liam Byrne was clear that there were no grounds for complacency. There were signs that some of the action the Government had taken, such as the reduction in VAT, the help for people faced with repossessions and the help for people getting back to work, were starting to have an affect. However, there were some very bad export figures from Germany this morning, so the global situation remained very challenging for Britain and hence there was no room for complacency.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Cabinet

No Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries