Downing Street Says » 2004

» Friday, June 11, 2004

Election Results

Asked how the Prime Minister was made aware of the local election results, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said that as it was a political matter journalists should speak to the Labour Party. Asked about turnout, the PMS said that all the figures were not in yet but the turnout appeared to be higher. These were not final figures yet but at the moment they stood at around 44% in the pilot areas and in the non-pilot areas approximately 37.5%. The Government was committed to modernising the electoral process and making it easier for people to place their vote. The Government would obviously be looking at the results of the pilot scheme to see how they had worked and if there were any lessons to be learned. Asked if voting was likely to be made compulsory following Malcolm Wicks' comments, the PMS said that she had not heard those comments but she was not aware of any Government plans to make voting compulsory.

Briefing took place at 11:45 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

» Thursday, June 10, 2004

Euro 2004

Asked again as to whether the Prime Minister was intending to watch England v France on Sunday, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said that she hadn't checked his diary. That said, the Prime Minister usually liked to watch games if he had the time. Asked if there was any St George's "paraphernalia" in No 10, the PMS said that she hadn't really noticed as she had obviously been very busy preparing for this afternoon's challenging press briefing.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

PM Voting

Asked where the Prime Minister had voted, the PMS said that the Prime Minister usually voted in London during local elections. He voted in his constituency at General Elections.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

Postal Ballots

Asked if the Government was concerned that the postal ballot pilot schemes had been discredited, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said she did not agree with the premise of the question. As she had told journalists yesterday, we would condemn any attempt to influence the outcome of the elections through fraud or intimidation. She pointed out that there was an offence of personation which carried a penalty of two years in prison if people were convicted. She added that we did not believe the postal voting system was any more prone to fraud than the more the traditional way of voting using the ballot box, as earlier postal ballot pilot schemes had shown. Asked if it was possible that all-postal voting might not feature in future elections, the PMS said that an evaluation of the pilots would be carried out after the elections to examine how well the system had worked. Asked if she would agree that it would have been wiser to limit the pilots to two areas rather than four, the PMS said that there were four regions where postal voting was being piloted. The Electoral Commission would evaluate the results once the elections were over. Asked if the whole country would vote by post in the next election if the pilot schemes were deemed to be a success, the PMS said that she was not aware of any plans for compulsory postal votes for the whole country.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

John Reid/Smoking

Asked if John Reid would talk about smoking in his speech today to the Public Health Annual Scientific meeting in Edinburgh, the PMS said that she had not seen a text of his speech.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

European Commission President

Asked the Prime Minister's view of Guy Verhofstadt as the next European Commission President, the PMS said that she hadn't asked the Prime Minister's opinion. Asked if the Prime Minister had a favourite candidate for the job, the PMS said that there would be a lot of discussion about EU matters over the coming days. She had no intention of pre-empting any of those discussions.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Euro 2004

Asked if the Prime Minister was planning to watch the Euro 2004 England v France match on Sunday, the PMS said that he usually liked to watch football games whenever he could.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

» Wednesday, June 9, 2004

John Reid/Smoking

Asked again if the Government endorsed John Reid's remarks on smoking, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said that she had dealt with this issue at great length at this morning's briefing and she did not think there was any real point in going through it all again. Briefly, Dr Reid had been expressing a view. A consultation exercise on smoking and public health was currently ongoing. We wanted people to debate these issues and we wanted to hear their views. She advised journalists to actually read Dr Reid's comments, rather than base their questions on media interpretations.Put to her that the criticisms of Dr Reid related to the fact that he had described smoking as a "pleasure", the PMS said that Dr Reid had been reflecting a view that some people actually enjoyed smoking - something that should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

PM/Dentist

Questioned as to whether the Prime Minister had an NHS dentist, the PMS later informed journalists that he did.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

Postal Ballots

Asked if the Government would be judging the success of the postal ballot pilots purely on the question of turnout or on the level of fraud, the PMS said that as she had told journalists this morning, postal ballot pilots which had been run in the past had shown no greater evidence of fraud than in the more traditional ways of voting. It went without saying that the Government would condemn absolutely anyone behaving fraudulently or attempting to influence the way in which people voted. The idea of a postal vote was to try to encourage greater voter participation. There were four pilots in these elections, the results of which would be evaluated afterwards. This would include examining the level of fraud that had taken place. Asked if the idea of postal ballots would be abandoned if the level of fraud was found to be high, the PMS said that it was pointless to debate hypothetical scenarios at this stage. The elections were tomorrow. People should exercise a little patience and wait for the results. The allegations which had already been raised were being investigated, as you would expect. She reminded journalists that offences relating to personation carried a penalty of up to two years in prison. These things were clearly taken very seriously. Asked if the Government's aim was to have an all-postal ballot at a future General Election, the PMS said she was not aware of any plans to take the idea forward to that degree at this stage. At the moment, we were looking at ways to encourage people to participate in the electoral system.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Friday, June 11, 2004

Election Results

» Thursday, June 10, 2004

Euro 2004

PM Voting

Postal Ballots

John Reid/Smoking

European Commission President

Euro 2004

» Wednesday, June 9, 2004

John Reid/Smoking

PM/Dentist

Postal Ballots

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