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» Thursday, July 22, 2004

Prime Minister’s press conference

[This is the transcript of one of the Prime Minister's occasional press conferences; these are the words of the Prime Minister giving a statement and answering the questions of journalists. Unlike the PMOS's briefings, this is a more-or-less verbatim transcript of the Prime Minister's words. Such press conferences happen about once a month, and occasionally more often.]

Briefing took place at 19:50 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Prime Minister’s Questions

[ Yesterday, the Prime Minister answered questions from MPs in the House of Commons. You can read and comment on his answers at TheyWorkForYou.com. ]

Briefing took place at 18:15 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

EU Commissioner

Asked if an announcement on Britain's new EU Commissioner would be made tomorrow, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that an announcement would be made when a final decision had been taken. He reminded journalists that we had until the end of the month to make the appointment. Pressed further on this issue, the PMOS said that it was important to abide by the usual conventions both in terms of the way we operated in Downing Street and in Europe. Asked if he was indicating that we would have to notify the European Parliament and they would have to give their consent, the PMOS pointed out that the new President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, had had to go through such a procedure today. Asked if it was right to say that that the European Parliament needed to accept or reject the entire European Commission rather than individual Commissioners, the PMOS said yes. Put to him that the UK didn't need the all-clear from Brussels to put forward its nominee, the PMOS said that there were normal courtesies to be observed by all EU member states in respect of the Commission President whom it was usual to inform about nominees. This was usually done through a discussion, which in this case had not yet taken place. Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to Mr Barroso today, the PMOS said no. Nor was he aware of any plans for him to do so today at this stage. Asked if it was too late for a 'writ' for a by-election to be put down today, the PMOS said that he had no intention of getting drawn into a hypothetical discussion about this issue.

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

Reshuffle

Asked if he could rule out a reshuffle today, the PMOS said that it wasn’t our policy to respond to reshuffle questions. That said, he thought journalists could relax for the rest of the day. Asked about the possibility of a reshuffle tomorrow, the PMOS said that tomorrow was another day. Put to him that […]

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

Darfur

Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to Kofi Annan today, the PMOS said that they were due to speak this evening. The Prime Minister had been talking to people about the situation in Darfur on a daily basis. As he had told journalists in his press conference this morning, the UK was taking a serious interest in what was going on there in the light of Hilary Benn's visit to the region in June and the fact that the UK was the biggest cash donor. The US was also heavily involved inasmuch as they were the biggest donors of food-aid. We were continuing to talk to our European partners about how the EU as a whole could help the situation, particularly in terms of assisting the African Union in the deployment of a ceasefire monitoring mechanism. As the Prime Minister had told journalists this morning, there was no doubt that this was a serious situation. However, it was important to take things stage by stage. We were doing all that we could. We wanted the rest of the world to follow our example.

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

Middle East

Asked how he would reconcile the UK's position at the UN on Israel's barrier and the Prime Minister's comments about it today, the PMOS said that as we had made clear consistently, we believed the barrier should not be built on occupied land. Equally, however, we had made it plain that Israel had genuine security concerns which the Palestinians needed to address. We wanted to see a situation in which increased security on the Palestinian side would give the Israelis the reassurance they needed to allow them to take the appropriate action to move the barrier. This was clearly a complicated situation. Put to him that in that case the UK should not have voted in favour of the UN Resolution yesterday, the PMOS said that he would disagree. As he saw it, the Resolution was entirely compatible with our position on the barrier.

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

Regional Assemblies

Asked if he would agree that the Deputy Prime Minister had misled the Government and the public in the light of his decision today to postpone referendums in two out of the three proposed areas for regional assemblies, the PMOS said no. The Deputy Prime Minister had informed Ministers about his decision and he had been fully supported by the Prime Minister and his colleagues who believed it was a sensible way forward in the light of the issues relating to postal voting which had been identified and which the Electoral Commission would address in its report on the all-postal pilots in August.

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

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