The difficult decisions we had taken on public sector pay in recent years has meant that the Bank of England had been able to reduce interest rates on a number of occasions in recent months. Put that Unison should not run away with the idea that the Prime Minister was in a weakened position, the PMS replied not at all.

original source.

Asked if people should read anything into the fact that it was almost 20 years to the day that Margaret Thatcher had made her controversial speech to the same audience, the PMS said no.

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Asked if the Prime Minister was minded to unilaterally publish his expense details to show that he was relaxed, the PMS said it was the Prime Minister’s view that it was right that these matters were dealt with by the House authorities.

Asked how the Prime Minister felt about his address being published, the PMS said that of course there were security implications, but these were really matters for the House authorities. The PMS reiterated that the Prime Minister was relaxed about the disclosure of his expense details, but on issues of security, it was best that the experts on security were allowed to give their view.

original source.

This was the right thing to do to protect the public and it reflected the increasing complexity of terror trials. As the Prime Minister himself had said, there was a consensus that it may be necessary to hold individuals beyond 28 days, but the debate was about exactly what mechanisms were in place, to enable you to do that.

The Government had published its very detailed proposals on what the specific judicial and parliamentary mechanisms might be and that’s what was currently being considered by Parliament.

Asked repeatedly if the package from last November was still the package that was going to be voted on or was there going to be changes, the PMS replied that the package that was on the table was the package that was on the table. The key issue for the Prime Minister was that we did introduce legislation that enabled people to be held if necessary beyond 28 days.

Asked if he recognised the specific suggestions in the Guardian, such as bringing down the period of parliamentary oversight, the PMS said he did not want to get into specifics. The Government had put forward its proposals and these were now being considered by Parliament and in due course would be voted on by Parliament. The key point from our point of view was that we did think there was a consensus on the need to hold people beyond 28 days and we thought the differences between the various parties was much less than was sometimes made out to be.

Put that there had been a suggestion that the extension from 28 days to 42 days would involve tagging or a bail system, the PMS replied that we had made clear at the time that that was not a proposal that had ever been considered in any serious way by the Home Secretary.

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Asked about the extra £200million of funding for the Ministry of Defence and whether it was coming from outside the MoD or from within, the PMS said that as the Treasury had been making clear in response to enquiries, what we were talking about in this case was flexibility within the settlement to make the necessary medium-term changes we needed to make.

Asked what the Prime Minister thought of the decision by Willie Walsh to waive his bonus this year, the PMS said that the Prime Minister thought it was a matter for Willie Walsh.

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Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with the First Minister regarding having a wider enquiry into the violence between football fans in Manchester last night, the PMS said that we would need to look at exactly what the First Minister had said. The Prime Minister was asked several questions about this at the press conference this morning and we were still assessing the situation.

Asked about the Migration Impact Fund which had been mentioned in the Queen’s Speech, the PMS said that this had been around for a while; this was one of the measures, not the most significant, in the White Paper on the rights and responsibilities of British citizenship which was published in February and was part of the Immigration and Citizenship Bill.

Asked if the Prime Minister was trying to signal a different position regarding 42 days, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was not trying to signal any change in his position on 42 days at all.

original source.

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Put that according to Caroline Flint’s document yesterday, a house bought today for £200million would only be worth £180million next year, the PMS replied that as Caroline Flint had said yesterday in her statement, the figures referred to in the document, referred to external estimates and not necessarily Government estimates. Asked if it was a good time to put taxpayers money into the housing market, the PMS said that there were a number of unsold properties on the market; the Government would obviously be looking to get the best value for money for the taxpayer and would seek a competitive price.

Asked what the Government estimates were, the PMS replied that the Government forecasts would have been set out in the Budget and the Treasury would update them in the pre-Budget Report.

Put that assuming a lot of unsold properties were bought, who would then manage them and let them, the PMS said that it was his understanding that the scheme was being run by the Housing Corporation, which was a Government Agency. It would be for them to decide subsequently, how the properties would be best managed.

Asked about shared ownership schemes and whether the Prime Minister thought it was a good time for people on lower incomes to be getting into the housing market, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister thought that it was a choice for individuals to make and not for the Government to give advice on. What the Government could do was to provide support to people who did want to get on the housing ladder. Asked what happened under a shared ownership scheme if the value of the property fell, the PMS said that he was sure the Treasury or DCLG could give people the details, but from memory there were quite detailed arrangements between building societies and the Government in terms of how it worked.

original source.

original source.

original source.