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, September 3, 2012

Press briefing afternoon 3 September 2012

Monday 3 September 2012 The economy, manufacturing, Lords Reform, constituency boundaries and the greenbelt were discussed at this press briefing

Reshuffle

Asked about speculation of a Cabinet reshuffle, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that he would not comment on speculation.

Economy and manufacturing figures

Asked about the latest manufacturing figures, the PMOS said that, whilst he would not comment on every specific set of figures released, as the Chancellor had said in his interview yesterday, the country faced a challenging economic environment and that there was work to do to rebalance the economy. Since the last election, significant numbers […]

Lords Reform

Asked why reform of the House of Lords did not proceed, the PMOS said that it required consensus to move forward with a Bill and that consensus was not forthcoming.

Boundaries

Asked about whether it was still the Prime Minister’s (PM’s) intention to press ahead with reform of constituency boundaries, the PMOS said that the Boundaries Commission was due to report next year and after that, there would be a vote in Parliament, required by the Act. The PM’s view remained that there should be a […]

Greenbelt

Asked whether the PM agreed with the Chancellor’s views on the greenbelt, the PMOS said that the Chancellor was explaining the current system. Councils should look within existing rules to see whether they could do more to support development and growth. The government recently set out its position in the National Policy Planning Framework and […]

Grant Shapps

Asked about a letter concerning Grant Shapps’ business interests sent to the Permanent Secretary at DCLG, the PMOS said that it was for the Permanent Secretary at that department to respond, and confirmed that the Prime Minister retained full confidence in Grant Shapps.

» Monday, August 6, 2012

Press Briefing afternoon 6 August 2012

Monday 6 August 2012 The Olympics, House of Lords reform, the economy and Syria were among the topics discussed at this press briefing.

Olympics meeting

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) began by saying that there had been an Olympics committee meeting that morning to take stock and look ahead to the coming week.

House of Lords reform

Asked if the boundary review was dead, the PMOS told the journalists that they should wait for the announcement from the Deputy Prime Minister later that day. He reminded them that each Boundary Commission would present final recommendations in Autumn 2013 and the issue would then return to the House of Commons. Asked if there […]

Olympics

Asked if the ministerial Olympic meeting that morning was positive, the PMOS said that it was. He said that discussions had focused on the successful sporting weekend, both in terms of medals won and the arrangements put in place to manage the additional numbers of people at the Olympic Park. He told the journalists that […]

Economy

Asked about Danny Alexander’s comment that ‘the credit rating is not the be-all and end-all’ and whether this was a change in Government position, the PMOS said that what mattered for the Government was having the right polices in place including a credible policy for reducing the deficit. He also pointed to that fact that […]

Syria

Asked whether the Prime Minister thought Tony Blair would make a suitable replacement for Kofi Annan, the PMOS said that work with other countries was needed to deal with situation in Syria and that the Annan plan hadn’t worked. He reminded them that on Friday, the UN General Assembly had passed a resolution which condemned […]

» Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Press briefing morning 17 July 2012

Tuesday 17 July 2012 Special advisers, wind farms, inflation, the Olympics and Afghanistan were discussed at this press briefing

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, September 3, 2012

Press briefing afternoon 3 September 2012

Reshuffle

Economy and manufacturing figures

Lords Reform

Boundaries

Greenbelt

Grant Shapps

» Monday, August 6, 2012

Press Briefing afternoon 6 August 2012

Olympics meeting

House of Lords reform

Olympics

Economy

Syria

» Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Press briefing morning 17 July 2012

Search

Supported by

Recent Comments

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries