Downing Street Says » 2007 » February

» Thursday, February 1, 2007

Forthcoming Business

The Leader said that, on Monday, February 5, the House would debate the second reading of the UK Borders Bill (Liam Byrne and Joan Ryan for the Government). On Tuesday, February 6, the business would be remaining stages of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill (David Hanson and Paul Goggins). Wednesday, February 7 would be Opposition Day (5th Allotted Day) - a debated entitled, "The Al Yamamah Arms Agreement and Related Matters", followed by a debate entitled, "The Government's Failing Record on Crime", both debates arising on Liberal Democrat motions. On Thursday, February 8, a debate on the Future of Buses on a motion for the Adjournment of the House (Stephen Ladyman and Gillian Merron). The House would not sit on Friday, February 9.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Forthcoming Business

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

House of Lords Reform

In response to a question, the Leader said that there had been a good discussion in Cabinet earlier. There would be a White Paper, almost certainly published next week, followed by debates and a free vote. Mr Straw drew attention to his party's manifesto, adding that it was always the case that the free vote on the composition of the House of Lords would extend to members of the Cabinet. Asked if he recognised the Guardian's report earlier this week on the White Paper, the Leader said that he thought it had been interesting. Answering a further question, he said there would be time for the House of Commons to decide the process separately from the debate on the substance, allowing it to come to a view on how MPs would make their choices and avoiding the difficulties of a previous vote on reform.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Police Inquiry

The Leader was asked, as the Lobby's "conduit" to the Cabinet, whether he thought it was acceptable that the PMOS should be put in a position where, inadvertently, he effectively misled journalists for the best part of a week and, as a result, Lobby journalists misled the public. Mr Straw said that, in the special and particular circumstances in which the request had been made by the Metropolitan Police that nothing should be divulged about the interview with the Prime Minister, he was absolutely clear that it was acceptable practice. Indeed, he believed that nobody from the Prime Minister downwards had any choice but to follow that request.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Police Inquiry

Asked about the decision not to reveal the fact that the Prime Minister had been interviewed by the police last Friday, at the request of the police and was this acceptable, the PMOS asked the reporters to imagine what the headline would be if the Prime Minister had not fully complied with the police request, and the reason why he had answered questions the way he did in Lobby last week was not to avoid the truth but simply because he could only know what he'd been told. The substantial point that people should recognise is that once the police made a request of this kind, either you fully comply with the police investigation or you do not. There is no half way. Therefore the reasoning was nothing to do with any consequences of people knowing such a meeting took place but because the police requested, as they said in their statement, for operational reasons.

Briefing took place at 15:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Lords Reform

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told the Lobby that the Leader of the House had presented Cabinet that Monday with an update on House of Lords reform. This was the result of a year long process with the relevant Cabinet subcommittee, which all members of cabinet could attend at any point if they wished. Next week there would be a White Paper published, there would then be a period of reflection, and then there would be a pre-vote in Parliament on the composition issue (not the process issue). This pre-vote would include members of the Cabinet who took different views on this matter, as this morning's discussion proved.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Northern Ireland

The PMOS reported that the Prime Minister was currently meeting Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness. This was partly an update on where we were following the Ard Fheis and following Gerry Adams' comments that people who were victims of crime in Republican areas should go to the police; that people who wish to join the police from those areas should be supported; and that anybody with information about the McCartney murder should also go to the police. Sinn Fein would want to raise the court investigation and the Ombudsman report, which the Irish Government had also raised on repeated occasions.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Counter-Terrorism

The PMOS reported that there was a discussion led by John Reid at Cabinet, which first updated colleagues on Birmingham and then moved on to an overview of terrorism and counter-terrorism. As part of this, the Home Secretary had been discussing the issue of limits on pre-charge detention in terrorist cases with leaders of the police service and others. The police service had now concluded that it was right and proper for Government to address this issue and wanted the Home Secretary to discuss it with colleagues in Government and more widely, with a view to seeing whether a consensus could be achieved. The Home Secretary raised this issue with colleagues this morning, and Cabinet had agreed to try and establish a national consensus on this. The Home Secretary outlined that although there had not yet been a case where 28 days had been inadequate, all 28 days were needed for the August airline case. It was quite possible to envisage cases where the police would need more than 28 days, because the terrorist threat is coming larger and more complex, because the scale of the operation was increasing, and the amount of evidence was growing fast. The sequential nature of an investigation could mean charging decisions taking longer than 28 days.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

Police Inquiry

The PMOS told Lobby that last Friday the Prime Minister was briefly interviewed by the police as a witness. At the request of the police this was kept utterly confidential, and as a result the Press and Communications Team in Downing Street were not informed. As far as we were concerned, nothing had changed. During the course of yesterday afternoon the police contacted Downing Street to inform us that the requirement for confidentiality had been lifted. That was why he was informing Lobby at the first appropriate moment. The Metropolitan Police Service would be issuing a short statement in parallel with this statement.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

BAE

Asked if the Prime Minister had been involved in putting pressure on the Attorney General, the PMOS replied that we had already outlined the Prime Minister's involvement. The important point was that the decision not to proceed was taken by the Director of the Serious Fraud Office.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

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» Thursday, February 1, 2007

Forthcoming Business

Forthcoming Business

House of Lords Reform

Police Inquiry

Police Inquiry

Lords Reform

Northern Ireland

Counter-Terrorism

Police Inquiry

BAE

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