Downing Street Says ... Every day the Prime Minister’s Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as ‘the lobby’ for a topical chat, or ‘briefing’.

Every day the Prime Minister's Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as 'the lobby' for a topical chat, or 'briefing'.

Downing Street Says... is an unofficial site that lets you read summaries of these briefings and add your own comments. Want to know more?

» Monday, June 13, 2011

NHS Future Forum Report

Asked about how the Government would respond to the Future Forum report tomorrow, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson (PMS) said that there would be a statement in the House by the Health Secretary responding to the report on Tuesday 14 June. Asked to clarify how the Government’s own listening exercise tied into the Future Forum report, […]

Benefit cap

Asked whether the Government was putting aside money to cushion the blow’ of the benefit cap, the PMS said the Government had set out its policies and they remained unchanged. Asked whether Lord Freud had misspoken at the weekend, the PMS said that Lord Freud had been referring to specific circumstances and the Government was […]

Benefit payments

Asked if the plans for a benefit cap had been watered down, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the policy remained unchanged. Asked what Lord Freud had been talking about yesterday when he spoke about exceptional circumstances’, the PMS replied that Iain Duncan Smith had put out a statement this morning […]

NHS reform

When asked which side of the Coalition had won’ on NHS reform, the PMS said that he wouldn’t characterise it in those terms. We were still waiting for the NHS Future Forum report which would be published later today and we would have more to say about our response to that tomorrow. Asked if it […]

Missing children

Put that Kate McCann had been speaking today on what more could be done to find missing children and was the Prime Minister sympathetic to that, the PMS said that it was a priority for the Government and we were working hard to make sure we had the best arrangements in place to support families […]

Scotland

Asked whether the Scottish government would be given extra borrowing powers and had the UK Government caved in’ on the issue, the PMS said that we had always said that we would listen carefully to any detailed proposals and that’s what we were doing. original source.

Misc

Asked about employee representatives on remuneration boards, the PMS said that he would not be commenting on soon to be announced opposition policy. Asked about council housing policy and the fact that tenants could get moved up the ladder if they were in work and was the Government minded to use those powers more often, […]

» Friday, June 10, 2011

Cabinet leak enquiry

Asked for information on any investigation by the government into Daily Telegraph’s publication of letters between Gordon Brown and Ed Balls, the Prime Minster’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Cabinet Office had said that it would first look into whether these papers were in the possession of a government department, and if […]

Misc

Asked if the PM had met with University Vice-Chancellors in No.10 earlier and if there was a read-out of the meeting, the PMS said that the PM had briefly stopped by a meeting that was held by David Willetts in No.10 and as such there was no readout. Asked if the PM still had confidence […]

» Thursday, June 9, 2011

Archbishop of Canterbury

Asked if the Prime Minister thought that the Archbishop was a silly old fool’, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Prime Minister had already responded to the Archbishop’s comments, as had several Cabinet Minister’s. Asked if the Prime Minister had read the piece in the media, the PMS replied that […]

Sentencing

Asked what the Prime Minister had meant when he said that Ken Clarke still had plenty of fuel in the tank’ and did this mean that he would be in the Cabinet for many years to come, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had said what he said. Asked whether sentence discounts’ had only […]

David Kelly

Asked if the Attorney General had the authority to rule that no further inquests were needed, the PMS said that he did have that authority. The Attorney General had been considering some evidence and had decided that it should not proceed any further. original source.

BMA

Asked if there had been contact between the Government and the BMA, the PMS said that there certainly had been lots of conversations with the BMA over the last couple of months. Asked how important it was that organisations like the BMA changed their view on NHS reform, the PMS said that we had been […]

Banks

Asked about Stephen Hester admitting that some taxpayer’s money could have gone in to paying bankers bonuses, the PMS replied that the Government had put a significant amount of money into RBS and they had paid bonuses. Asked if that was right, the PMS said that banks were operating under much stricter rules and the […]

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.

» Monday, June 13, 2011

NHS Future Forum Report

Benefit cap

Benefit payments

NHS reform

Missing children

Scotland

Misc

» Friday, June 10, 2011

Cabinet leak enquiry

Misc

» Thursday, June 9, 2011

Archbishop of Canterbury

Sentencing

David Kelly

BMA

Banks

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