Downing Street Says » 2007

» Thursday, February 1, 2007

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)

Iran

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with President Chirac's comments yesterday that the prospects of an Iranian nuclear bomb were "not very dangerous", the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister's view was that of the United Nations. Iran should comply with international obligations and that did not mean developing nuclear capacity. Asked further if President Chirac had expressed this view to the Prime Minister before, the PMOS replied that private conversations were private conversations.

Briefing took place at 9:00 | Read whole briefing | Comment (1)

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» Thursday, February 1, 2007

Northern Ireland

Counter-Terrorism

Police Inquiry

BAE

Iran

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