Downing Street Says » Employment

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) drew journalists’ attention to the latest employment figures which had been published this morning. They showed that there were more people in work today than ever before – up 300,000 in the last year alone. The Prime Minister had said, “The figures published today show that there are 1.95m more people in work than seven years ago. That means one more person in work every two minutes since this Government has been in power. But we are not complacent. The Government will continue to strengthen the New Deal as we move towards full employment”. The PMOS added that the Chancellor had made a speech to the CBI this morning in which he had outlined a series of measures designed to strengthen the New Deal.

Asked if the Prime Minister would want to pay tribute to the Chancellor’s policies for achieving these levels of employment, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister was on the record paying tribute to the Chancellor’s stewardship of the economy just as he was on the record paying tribute to the work of other Ministers involved in different aspects, such as the New Deal, as well. Today’s employment figures were a tribute to the work of the Government as a whole.

Asked the Prime Minister’s reaction to the beheading of US citizen, Nick Berg, the PMOS said the Prime Minister believed that this was a truly barbaric act and that there was no justification for this sort of action in a civilised world. Asked if the Prime Minister had seen the footage of the murder, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had seen television coverage of the issue. He was not aware that he had seen the full sequence of events. Asked if the Prime Minister had been in contact with President Bush, the PMOS said that they had not spoken since news of the murder had broken.

Asked if the Prime Minister believed there was any link between Mr Berg’s murder and the publication of photos relating to allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by Coalition forces, the PMOS repeated that there was no justification for an act of this barbarity. That was all that needed to be said about this matter.

Asked if the Prime Minister would draw a distinction between the treatment meted out by US troops and British troops, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister shared the view of President Bush that any mistreatment of prisoners was abhorrent, wrong and un-American. The President and Prime Minister were both agreed that the aim in Iraq was to establish a democracy in which every individual was treated as such. Consequently, mistreatment of any kind was completely wrong. The Prime Minister also believed that UK troops had shown remarkable constraint and discipline. It went without saying that any allegations of mistreatment were investigated rigorously. Those were values which the Prime Minister would attribute to the Coalition as a whole. Asked if the Prime Minister believed that British troops were leading by example, the PMOS said that we were not going to allow people, including some in the media, to attempt to drive wedges between our allies and us. Our objective was the same. Those who had carried out the barbaric act against Mr Berg had said that their goal was to make Iraq ungovernable. Our goal was to help create an Iraq in which the Iraqi people governed themselves. That was what we were continuing to do. Asked to explain the Prime Minister’s reluctance to discuss in public the differences of view between the UK and the US when he had in the past set out divisions between the UK and EU member states for example, the PMOS said that he would never brief on a private conversation between the Prime Minister and President Chirac, or the Prime Minister and Chancellor Schroeder for example. Put to him that Jack Straw had drawn a distinction between the conduct of British forces and US forces, the PMOS said that Mr Straw had been reflecting the condemnation of the alleged mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by US troops – condemnation which had been led by the US President himself.

Asked if the Prime Minister now wished that he had put more pressure on President Bush to deal with the Guantanamo Bay issue, the PMOS said that it was a mistake to merge allegations about one issue into another. The important thing was the clear and unambiguous signal that was sent from the top of Government, whether in the UK or in the US – that the mistreatment of prisoners was wrong and counter-productive.

Asked to confirm today’s Times report suggesting that the Prime Minister had been instrumental in persuading President Bush to get Donald Rumsfeld to make an apology last week and also for the pullout of US troops from Fallujah, the PMOS said that it wasn’t our policy to brief on private conversations between the Prime Minister and the President. Put to him that the story was attributed to Downing Street, the PMOS repeated that we never briefed on conversations between the two leaders. That should not be interpreted as either a confirmation or a denial of the story.

Asked if the Prime Minister had discussed becoming an electoral liability with senior colleagues and if he had told them that he would stand down if he thought that was the case, the PMOS said that as he had told journalists at yesterday afternoon’s briefing, as a Civil Servant he was unable to comment on party matters. The Prime Minister remained focussed on driving forward the agenda both at home, in terms of the economy as reflected by the record employment figures today, and in terms of Iraq in driving home a difficult job while supporting the excellent work being done by our troops. Put to him that the British people had a right to know if their Prime Minister was thinking of standing down, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had made his position clear regarding his determination to continue doing his job.

Asked if the abuse allegations had had an impact on the discussions regarding the possibility of sending more troops to Iraq, the PMOS said that a decision had not yet been taken. An announcement, if one were necessary, would be made at the appropriate time. This issue was being approached in a careful and measured way, as you would expect. All the appropriate work was being done, but it would take time to complete. Asked if one of the factors to be taken into account in deciding whether to send additional troops to Iraq was the issue of public perception, the PMOS said that the factors which would be taken into account included the situation on the ground and the goals we were trying to achieve in Iraq. Asked if the Prime Minister would consider holding a vote in Parliament on this matter, the PMOS said that these were issues which were hypothecated on a decision which had yet to be taken. Consequently there was clearly no point in getting drawn into a discussion about it.

Asked if the Prime Minister, like the Foreign Secretary, regretted not having had the opportunity to see the Red Cross report and raising it with President Bush, the PMOS said that he had dealt with this issue at great length over the couple of days and he really had nothing further to add about it.

Asked if the Prime Minister retained full confidence in Adam Ingram, the PMOS said yes.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

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, May 12, 2004

Employment

No Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries