Downing Street Says » Transcript of briefing given by the PMOS in London

The Prime Minister returned, as you know, from Gleneagles. He went straight into a meeting of Cobra, where all the main Secretaries of State associated with this terrible tragedy and atrocity were there. He is now currently speaking to the Leader of the Opposition and to Charles Kennedy. He will then make a private visit to the command centre at Scotland Yard. We will then, and again I don’t want to give precise times because for obvious reasons, we will then go back to Gleneagles. On Gleneagles, while we have not, as planned, issued our communiqué today on climate change, work has continued, and we will produce our communiqué on climate change, and on Africa, tomorrow, as planned. The African leaders who were planning to come tomorrow to Gleneagles will continue to come. And in terms of the Prime Minister’s movements, tomorrow he will come back to London, and it is anticipated he will chair another meeting of Cobra. It is also thought that there will be a further meeting of Cobra, chaired by the Home Secretary, tomorrow morning.

In terms of the Prime Minister’s view, you will have heard him, and that really expresses his view, but I am quite happy to take questions on whatever. .

In the Prime Minister’s statement he specifically spoke about the Muslim Council and about terrorists and Islam, so is that just an assumption, or is there evidence now that directly links this to some form of Al Queda or some form of terrorist group?

We are not going to at this stage make any attribution, because it is so soon after the event. But the Prime Minister chose his words carefully, and I think that he believes it is more important that we make sure that whoever carried this out does not in any way achieve the goal of dividing the United Kingdom, one against the other. And he is determined, just as determined as he was after 9/11, that it will not have that effect in this country.

Can I just follow on from that last one. He did very specifically refer to Muslim terrorism. Does he know anything that we don’t, has he had any advice from security services or anyone else about the provenance of this? And second, in terms of the fact that these were very well organised, carefully timed, co-ordinated attacks, is there a serious worry, there was a thought that the terrorist networks had been seriously disrupted in this country and maybe that that is wrong?

I think in terms of the former, he has been briefed, as you would expect, by the relevant people. I think you will equally understand if I don’t go into the detail of what was said. But I think in terms of, you have seen various public statements and so on, I am not going to get into, as I say, attribution, but I think he made his comments carefully, if I can put it that way. In terms of the latter, he said in his public statements that there is an immediate, very thorough, investigation started. There is also of course a process of assessment that now needs to get under way, and that is already happening. And I think you can take it that: a) those who carried out this terrible deed will be pursued; and b) that everything that can be done, will be done, to try and reach an assessment of the level of threat.

This is not the day for politics, and this is not the day for getting into that kind of quid pro quo response. I won’t go there. All I can say is that, as the Prime Minister said earlier today, his efforts today, and those of the other world leaders who were around that table today, were to address the serious issue of climate change today and the horror of poverty in Africa tomorrow. That is what he has been trying to do today, and those are the issues that he has been addressing. Those who carried out this atrocity, or these atrocities, define themselves equally by their actions today, and people can make their own judgments about who did what, and why.

Regarding timings of G8, any idea yet what time you are expecting the Prime Minister back at Gleneagles? And tomorrow, you said he is going to chair another meeting of Cobra in London tomorrow afternoon. Now I think originally he was due to do a press conference here, an end of summit press conference at 3.15, has that time changed, is that still going ahead do you know?

Well (a) I don’t want to get into precise timings, for obvious reasons. However, we will be back in Gleneagles tonight, we will be doing business tomorrow. In terms of precise timings, the Prime Minister will do his Chairman’s job of summing up the conference tomorrow. So therefore in terms of the business of the summit, this will not stop us doing that business, we will do that business and we will, we hope, have a successful summit, but we will do that business.

In terms of the security, the Metropolitan Police decide the level of security, and that is their job, and the Prime Minister has nothing but praise for the way in which the police, and the emergency services in general, have handled this terrible atrocity. And he pays tribute to the way in which they, but also ordinary Londoners, have responded to these events.

Just turning to climate change and the communiqué tomorrow, how would you characterise the discussions, are they close to agreement or are there still significant differences over issues?

Well I think we saw this morning the efforts that are being made on all sides to understand each other’s position. And while acknowledging the disagreements in the past about science and Kyoto, of reaching a new consensus about what happens after Kyoto, that process of consensus building was well under way by the time we left Gleneagles, and we believe that we will have a successful outcome, so long as those discussions continue in that spirit.

In terms of transport, in terms of other measures, I do want to leave that to the departments themselves. But certainly in terms of transport, what I would say in general is that the plan is to try and get services back to as normal as possible, as quickly as possible, and I believe that certain announcements have already been made to that effect.

Can you tell us anything about when the Prime Minister was told, and what he was initially told about these events, given that there was some confusion? And can you also just tell us what bilaterals he has got in the morning, if any?

In terms of when the Prime Minister was told, as you know he held his meeting with President Bush this morning, then he had a press conference, and then he went into his meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister. And it was during that meeting that we, probably like the rest of you, saw the first reports of these incidents, and therefore it was after that meeting that we informed the Prime Minister of these events. At that stage there was genuine confusion, but we up-dated him as the morning went on, and then it became clear, shortly before he made his first press statement this morning, what it was we were dealing with.

What was the Prime Minister’s reaction when he was told initially of the explosion?

The Prime Minister, as you would expect, was shocked, but equally he very quickly made clear his determination that the G8 would not be disrupted. He conveyed that view to the other members of the G8, who as you saw unanimously, along with the 5 other countries who were attending today, agreed to issue a joint statement. At the same time, we thought it was right and proper that he come back to London to hear for himself the views of his Ministerial team, and they have informed him, both at Gleneagles and at the meeting of Cobra, of what the departments are doing. However, he also felt it was important that the work that we were doing at G8 should not be stopped or disrupted by these events, and that is why we are going back.

Can I just have a quick follow-up. Did he say at any point that this was the event we were waiting for, was there any acceptance there and then that this was the inevitable thing?

As you know, we have warned in the past about the possibility of such an event as this, and I think therefore we always at the back of minds, where we wished the best, we feared the worst.

In the Prime Minister’s statement he went out of his way to stress that the vast majority of Muslims condemned terrorism. Is that because he is afraid of any kind of reaction against the Muslim community in Britain if this does turn out to be an Islamic terrorist attack?

I think it is because, just after 9/11, he believes that this country is a tolerant country, that this country does respect difference, and that he wants to preserve those values at all cost, because it is those values that the terrorists are attacking today. And therefore it is those values that we must preserve, and that is why he went out of his way today – as he did after 9/11 – just to underline that point, and also to reassure Muslims that that is his view.

… do we know yet anything at all about the nature of the explosives and where the bombs were … and they are talking about opening the tube system tomorrow, do we have structural damage or anything like that?

Well I will leave the details of the transport system to the relevant people there, but I think, if I could just make a generalisation, just so that people have a broad picture, I think they will try and open the tube as much as they can, but I think equally it is obvious that there will be substantial disruption, not least simply because of where the bombs are. In terms of your first question, all I can say is that they are beginning to gather together the evidence, but I don’t think you would expect me to go into too much detail about what they know and what they don’t know. So I think it is quite important that this investigation is allowed to get started, and get under way, and also we do not want other people to know what we know.

Have you decided to invoke any of the Part 2 paras under the … Civil Contingencies Act?

Is it your strong belief … transport system as normal, or that we would like to see some extra security?

The Prime Minister, as he made clear in his statement this evening, believes that what the terrorists want to do is to stop normal life, and therefore what we should try and do is, subject to the usual security advice, carry on with normal life as much as possible. He recognises that people will have concerns, but he believes that the best way for us to overcome terrorism is to get on with normal life as much as is possible, and that view was echoed around the table very strongly this afternoon by all those who were there.

This statement that … on the website linked to al Queda, is there any reason to think that that is genuine, or not genuine, and given the similarities with Madrid, … security services looking at similar groups, or people linked to those people who …

We are aware of the statements, and that obviously will be part of the assessment, but that is all I can say at this stage.

In terms of who carried it out, and how, that is a matter that the police will deal with, rather than us. I think at this stage. In terms of, I have no plans at the moment for the Prime Minister to visit anyone in hospital, I think he believes that the hospitals need to get on with their jobs. He sends his condolences to those who have suffered such a tragic loss today, but equally he sends his full support to the medical staff, who have done a magnificent job, and continue to do so.

Again, in terms of that, we will take our advice from the police and the relevant authorities, and if there is any requirement to change, then we will notify the public appropriately.

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» Thursday, July 7, 2005

Transcript of briefing given by the PMOS in London

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