Downing Street Says » Leo Blair

» Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Leo Blair

Asked if there was anything in the Adam Boulton claim on Sky that it was a Downing Street wheeze, the PMOS said first and foremost that he genuinely wished he did not have to answer this question. But we had pointed out to Sky that their allegation was 100% wrong. There was no evidence for it. Therefore it was up to Sky to justify why it had made such a claim. That was the polite version. The impolite version was for Adam Boulton’s ears only.

Asked to confirm by Sky if there had been lengthy discussions yesterday afternoon between Downing Street and The Sun Newspaper, the PMOS said that we did not discuss security matters and this story illustrated precisely why we did not. Would we have rather not had this story appear. Answer: Yes. Did that in any way translate into evidence that we had in anyway leaked the story. Answer: No. If Sky had had the decency and professionalism to check with us before it had made the allegation they would have been told that. They had not done so.

Asked in that case if he was saying there had been no discussions with the Sun trying to persuade them not to run it on security grounds, the PMOS said he would not detail the nature of any discussions between No10 and the Sun, just as he would not do so with any other organisation. What he would say, however, was that it was clearly a story we would have preferred not to have run.

1 Comment »

"The impolite version was for Adam Boulton’s ears only."

Ooh! Get her!
Comment by Rob F — 19 Jan 2006 on 1:22 pm | Link

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Leo Blair

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