Downing Street Says » David Blunkett

Asked what the explanation behind the alleged letters published in a newspaper was, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that an independent review had been set up, and it should be allowed to complete its work, and we were not going to provided a running commentary on it. David Blunkett had provided a general context during his doorstep earlier in the day, but how it had related to the case was a matter for the Budd review to look into.

Asked if David Blunkett’s comments were appearing to say that the case was fast-tracked, the PMOS replied he had not read that interpretation into the comments. David Blunkett was setting out the general context of the case, but it was for the Budd review to look at the case.

Asked what the Home Secretary meant when he said "we’ll have something to say about that later today", the PMOS said he would rather wait for the Home Office to comment.

Asked if the visa case in question had preceded the later fast-tracked cases where a fee was applicable, (in order to clear a backlog) the PMOS replied that the individual case was being looked at by Sir Alan Budd, and would therefore not comment on it. What the Home Secretary was talking about was an overall process of speeding up before the charges came into effect, and that was distinct therefore from the charge that had been made.

Asked how many hours a day were lost, and how many meetings were cancelled as a result of the recent allegations, the PMOS said we did not comment on a Minister’s diary. What should be referred to was the work the Home Secretary did last week, and his recent work on ID cards. The amount of time he had spent in the media spotlight during the last week told its own story, not to mention the time spent doing the rest of his job. Asked again how much time had been taken by David Blunkett concerning legal matter and recent private matters, the PMOS said we did not comment in any way on legal or private concerns.

Asked if the Prime Minister had asked David Blunkett at any time recently to stand aside and allow his junior Ministers to take over for a while whilst the Home Secretary dealt with his personal concerns, the PMOS said no.

Asked if the Prime Minister had had any contact with the Home Secretary today, and was he surprised at the newspaper’s allegations about the fast-track case, the PMOS said in answer to the first question, he was not aware of a meeting, and in answer to the second question, as he had said earlier, he was not giving a running commentary on the case.

Asked why there was not an investigation into the misuse of David Blunkett’s ministerial car, and also did he take seriously the criticisms made by the Chairman of the Committee for Standards In Public Life, which had criticised the inquiry, the PMOS replied that he had already dealt with both these issues earlier and was not commenting again.

Asked if the Prime Minister still stood by his comments that he had confidence and trust in the Home Secretary, the PMOS said yes.

Asked if Sir Alan Budd had indicated what the timetable for the case may be, the PMOS said as soon as possible, with "as possible" being the operative words. He said that his impression was that people should not have to wait too long, but not expect anything this week.

Asked if the Prime Minister accepted the Home Secretary’s reasons behind his train ticket confusion, the PMOS said that he did.

Asked if there was no surprise that Cabinet Ministers were no completely "au fait" with the rules concerning travel, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister accepted that a genuine mistake had been made.

Asked if the Home Secretary had consulted the Treasury Solicitors, the PMOS said he was not aware of any meetings.

Asked if Sir Alan Budd would be able to call any civil servants to give evidence, the PMOS repeated again that he was not going to comment on how Sir Alan Budd would be conducting his inquiry.

Asked if the Budd Inquiry found that the Home Secretary had broken the Ministerial rules, would the Prime Minister seek his resignation, the PMOS said the key word in the question was "if", so it would be better for people to wait and see what the inquiry found.

Asked if the Home Secretary thought he was a victim of a campaign that was set out to "destroy" him, the PMOS replied that he had no doubt that the media would speculate about the source of all the stories, and it was therefore free to do so. He would not be giving a running commentary on them, however.

Asked to explain Mr. Quinn’s recent comments, the PMOS answered that it was for Mr. Quinn to explain, not him.

Asked if the Prime Minister would advise the Home Secretary not to press any paternity case until the baby was born, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister would not want to intervene in a legal case in any manner, as he had now pointed out to the questioner three times.

1 Comment »

It’s a misuse of language for Blair to describe as "independent" a review set up by the government, given terms of reference set by the government, and headed by an establishment figure acceptable to the prime minister. This is particularly objectionable when the person to be investigated is a close political colleague of the prime minister.
This is the kind of misuse of power which has brought UK politics into disrepute. We urgently need a written constitution to curb these kinds of abuses by an uncontrolled executive, and should get behind the efforts of organisations like Charter 88 to launch a grassroots movement to draw up a citizens’ constitution to cut the arrogant political elite down to size.
Comment by Michael McCarthy — 2 Dec 2004 on 9:20 am | Link

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.

» Wednesday, December 1, 2004

David Blunkett

1 Comment »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries