Downing Street Says » 2004

» Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Butler Report

Asked to explain what the Prime Minister had agreed to take responsibility for, as he had underlined in his Statement to the House today, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that Lord Butler had identified some mistakes which we acknowledged had been made and had come up with a series of recommendations. Equally, the Prime Minister continued to believe that the fundamental judgement relating to the reasons for going to war was correct. In his view, the Butler Report was a balanced report. It was important for people to recognise that, like Lord Hutton, the ISC and the FAC, Lord Butler had found no evidence to suggest that people had not acted in good faith. That was a very important point to take into account. Asked to spell out in detail the mistakes which had been made, the PMOS said that he had no intention of rehearsing the contents of the Report. Journalists could read it for themselves. That said, it was clear that mistakes had been made in relation to the intelligence process and the fact that caveats should have been attached to some of the information contained in the dossier. Asked to explain how the deletion of the caveats in the dossier could be considered acting in good faith, the PMOS pointed to Paragraph 21 of the Report's conclusions (Chapter 8) which stated that there was "no evidence of deliberate distortion or of culpable negligence" in the dossier. This included the fact that the caveats had not been added. It was this point which underlined the whole Report. As Lord Butler had said in his press conference this morning, "In my view, [there was] no deliberate attempt on the part of Government to mislead.....We have no reason, we have found no evidence to question the Prime Minister's good faith". That was Lord Butler's conclusion, as it had been Lord Hutton's, the ISC's and the FAC's. Put to him that the Prime Minister should take personal responsibility for the decision not to include the caveats in the light of the fact that he, himself, had chosen not to include them in his foreword to the dossier or in his various Statements to Parliament, the PMOS said Lord Butler had concluded that the Prime Minister had made his Statements and the dossier had been produced in good faith. If he had thought that the caveats had been left out as part of a deliberate strategy to distort the intelligence, he would not have included Paragraph 21 of his Report, he would not have accepted Lord Hutton's findings and would not have said specifically in his press conference that he had found no evidence of a deliberate attempt to mislead or anything to question the Prime Minister's good faith. Consequently, it was clear the Prime Minister's foreword and Statements to the House had been made in good faith. Asked why the Prime Minister had failed to apologise to the House for misleading MPs - however inadvertently, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had set up an inquiry "to investigate the accuracy of intelligence on Iraqi WMD up to March 2003, and to examine any discrepancies between the intelligence gathered, evaluated and used by the Government before the conflict, and between that intelligence and what has been discovered by the Iraq Survey Group since the end of the conflict" (Foreign Secretary, House of Commons, 3 February 2004). The results of that inquiry had been published today and the Prime Minister had come to the House this afternoon to respond to it, as was right and proper. He accepted the fact that it would have been better had the caveats been included and he also accepted responsibility for the mistakes which had been made. Put to him that, despite acting in good faith, the Prime Minister had still misled the country on the reasons for going to war, the PMOS said that in his Statement to the House today, the Prime Minister had underlined that the fundamental reasons for going to war were justified. Moreover, Paragraph 41 of the Report's conclusions (Chapter 8) showed that, in the Butler Committee's view, the intelligence which had been gathered and the evidence which had been found justified the conclusion that Saddam had had the "strategic intention of resuming the pursuit of prohibited weapons programmes", that he had been "carrying out illicit research and development, and procurement, activities" and had been "developing ballistic missiles with a range longer than permitted under relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions". This was proof that Saddam had been in breach of UN Resolution 1441, which was why the decision had been taken to go to war. The PMOS also took the opportunity to reiterate the point that the dossier had not been drawn up to argue the case for war. As Lord Butler had accepted, it had been drawn up to demonstrate why we had needed to take a stronger stand to enforce UN Resolutions on Iraq.

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

European Constitution

Asked if the Prime Minister welcomed the French Government's decision to hold a referendum on the European Constitution, the PMOS said that this was entirely a matter for the French Government and the people of France. The Prime Minister had set out why he believed the Treaty was good for both Europe and the UK. He looked forward to arguing the case in our own referendum. Asked if the British referendum would still go ahead even if the French people voted 'no' in theirs, the PMOS said that as the Prime Minister had underlined many times, the referendum in the UK would still take place, no matter what the outcome was in other countries.

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

EU Rebate

Asked for a reaction to the European Commission's proposal to phase out the UK's rebate over four years from 2008, the PMOS said that our position on the rebate had not changed since last week when he had been asked questions about the issue, or indeed since the Treaty negotiations last month. He reminded journalists that there were still eighteen months of discussions to go. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said we had ensured, as part of the Treaty negotiations, that any decision on the rebate would need to be backed unanimously.

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

» Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Butler Report

Asked if the Prime Minister had received a final copy of the Butler Report, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) confirmed that he had received it at lunchtime today. Asked if he had read it yet, the PMOS pointed out that he had been a bit busy today with the UK-Italian Summit. Asked how many Ministers had received an advance copy, the PMOS declined to get drawn into a discussion about processological issues. Asked how many pages made up the Report, the PMOS said that it was up to the Inquiry team to say. Questioned as to whether the Prime Minister had met Lord Butler today, the PMOS said no.

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

Iraq

Asked why the Prime Minister had spoken today about Britain helping Iraq to move towards 'the possibility' of a stable future when he had sounded much more positive about Iraq achieving this goal in recent weeks, the PMOS said that he would disagree with the premise of the question. The Prime Minister had been talking about Iraq's progress and movement towards democracy - pointing out, however, that it was a process which could not be taken for granted because of those who were deliberately out to wreck to it. Consequently, he believed that it was important for us to show solidarity with the interim Government in Iraq. All Iraqi Ministers, from the Prime Minister down, had spoken - both in public and in private - about their absolute commitment to achieving democracy for the first time in Iraq. That was not only the basis of our policy but, more importantly, their desire as Iraqi citizens.

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

Honours

Asked for a reaction to this morning's Public Administration Select Committee report on the Honours system, the PMOS said that as he had told journalists this morning, we would respond to it in due course, in the normal way.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (3)

Butler Report

Asked again about handling arrangements for the Butler Report tomorrow, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said Lord Butler had indicated that he would begin his press conference at around 12.30pm. With the permission of the Speaker, we were anticipating that the Prime Minister would make his Statement at about 1.30pm, depending on Business in the House. Asked if the Prime Minister had received a copy of the Report yet, the PMOS said that he hadn't received a final copy of the Report at this stage. He would do so at some point today. It was up to the Inquiry team to decide when that might be. Asked when the Opposition Leaders would be able to see the Report, the PMOS said that they would be given access to it from 6am tomorrow. Questioned as to whether PMQs would be postponed, the PMOS said no. It would take place as usual at midday tomorrow. Asked if the Prime Minister or his office had had any contact with Lord Butler in recent days, the PMOS said he had absolutely no intention of providing a running commentary on the minutiae of this issue. The Report would be published tomorrow.

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

Derek Scott

Asked for a reaction to Derek Scott's comment on the Today Programme this morning that he wouldn't bet his house on there being no tax rises in the next Parliament, the PMOS replied that the Chancellor had said all there was to say about the issue this morning. The CSR highlighted the Government's commitment to stability and sustainable investment in our public services - the key word here being 'sustainable'.

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

Honours

Asked when the Phillips Report on the Honours system would be published, the PMOS said that it would be published shortly. Asked for a reaction to today's report on the Honours system from the Public Administration Select Committee, the PMOS said that we would study the findings of the report and respond in due course, in the usual way.

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

» Monday, July 12, 2004

CSR

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the Chancellor had said today that his Spending Review Statement to Parliament would make clear the Government's ruthless focus on priorities, with no relaxation of fiscal discipline. He had stressed that even with lower overall growth in public spending than in the 2002 Spending Review, the savings being made on debt interest, unemployment and through increased efficiency would release resources to invest in the future of the economy and vital public services, while continuing to meet the strict fiscal rules.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (2)

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.

The unofficial site which lets you comment on the UK Prime Minister's official briefings. About us...

» Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Butler Report

European Constitution

EU Rebate

» Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Butler Report

Iraq

Honours

Butler Report

Derek Scott

Honours

» Monday, July 12, 2004

CSR

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries