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?

» Friday, March 4, 2011

Libya

Asked if there was the feeling that Gaddafi had stabilised his position, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said that our position on this hadn’t changed: we thought Gaddafi should go, which is also what President Obama had been saying last night. Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to President Obama last night or this […]

» Thursday, March 3, 2011

Libya

Asked if there had been any further calls today with President Obama, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said no. Asked what the Prime Minister made of Robert Gates’ comments, the PMS said that there was nothing further to add to what the Prime Minister said yesterday in the House of Commons: it was our duty […]

Multiculturalism

Asked if the Prime Minister stood by his view that multiculturalism had failed, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had set out his views in his speech in Munich. Asked if it contradicted the views of the Deputy Prime Minister, the PMS said that it was an important debate and a complicated issue, which […]

Special Advisers

Asked if the Prime Minister was horrified about behaviour of Special Advisors (SdAds) brought to his attention by the Cabinet Secretary, the PMS said that there were very clear rules in place and that the Prime Minister expected SpAds to adhere to them. Asked if any action had been taken, the PMS said that we […]

Post Office

Asked how taking away a 20m contract from the Post Office fitted in with the Government’s commitment to protect local businesses, the PMS said that cheques made up one per cent of annual turnover, and a new contract had to be put in place. We needed to ensure we got value for money for the […]

Libya

Asked if the Foreign Secretary had admitted to severe intelligence failures during Cabinet and whether the Education Secretary had criticised the Foreign Office for their response to the situation in Libya, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman told the assembled press that he would not be going into a great deal of detail about Cabinet discussions. The […]

BSkyB

Asked if the Prime Minister was pleased that Rupert Murdoch had been given the go ahead for the takeover, the PMS said the Culture Secretary had set out his decision and the Prime Minister had no role in that process; he was not aware of the Culture Secretary’s decision before it was made and announced. […]

Banking

Asked about reports in the media this morning about the Government abandoning the City, the PMS said that we wanted to see a successful and strong financial services sector in this country. We needed to respond to what we had seen in the last few years and we were strengthening our regulatory regime, as all […]

Benefits

Asked about reports on Eastern European nationals being able to claim benefits and whether that undermined the Government’s wider policy on immigration, the PMS replied that this was a story relating to a decision taken eight years ago. The PMS said that the restrictions that had been put in place now had to be lifted […]

» Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Libya

Asked whether the Government agreed with Lord Ashdown that a no-fly zone would need UN, Arab and Libyan support, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that we were doing some work on this and other contingency plans. People would expect us to do that and it was right for the Government to […]

Police Pay

Asked if the Prime Minister was determined to press ahead with the cuts agenda, the PMS said that we had a significant deficit which we had to deal with and that meant finding savings in various places. The cost of the police was 11bn and three quarters of that was spent on pay, so pay […]

» Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Libya

Asked if the Prime Minister was happy with the response from the EU on Libya so far, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson (PMS) told the assembled press that there had been a big diplomatic effort over several days including the process at the UN and we were pleased with how it had progressed. The Prime Minister […]

MOD Redundancies

Asked about the MOD announcement today on the squadrons not having been part of the SDSR and whether that meant the original process was not complete, the PMS said the SDSR involved strategic decisions about the future. Clearly there were detailed decisions that flowed from that and we were explicit at the time that a […]

Libya

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) started by saying that Cabinet had discussed Libya this morning. There was a broad discussion on the range of activity across Government; the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary both gave updates. The Chancellor spoke about what was happening in terms of freezing assets, as well as the bank notes […]

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.

» Friday, March 4, 2011

Libya

» Thursday, March 3, 2011

Libya

Multiculturalism

Special Advisers

Post Office

Libya

BSkyB

Banking

Benefits

» Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Libya

Police Pay

» Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Libya

MOD Redundancies

Libya

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