Downing Street Says » Police Inquiry

Asked that given the amount of information that was now in the public domain, could he tell Lobby when Ruth Turner allegedly had this meeting with Lord Levy, the PMOS replied by quoting the Director of Public Prosecutions Ken McDonald who said on Radio 4 yesterday "It is very undesirable that there should be material broadcast in the press relating to the continuing police inquiry. We are all for openness, but while a police inquiry is going on it is very important that there is not public discussion of developments, and I think we should try to avoid that." This was precisely what we had been doing, and the developments of the past few days underlined that in the interests of everyone, including the media, perhaps we should all listen to what Ken McDonald said.

Put to him that Ruth Turner’s parents had told the Standard that she felt distressed and isolated as a result of what was happening, and was No10 confident that it was fulfilling its duty of care to one of its employees, the PMOS replied that he was not going to talk about personal comments about one individual. What he would say was that part of the reason for discouraging speculation surrounding this investigation was that, as some in the media had acknowledged, it resulted in partial accounts. This was unfair on individuals as it put them in an invidious position of not being able to correct these partial accounts. This was something that the media should think about, as well as those who were putting those partial accounts into the media.

Put to him that Ken McDonald’s point did not make any sense since the police routinely talked about ongoing investigations, they held press conferences, put witness and bereaved parents up, the PMOS replied that he was not was not aware that it was common practice to discuss evidence or the nature of an inquiry.

Asked if he had any indication from the police how long the inquiry would go on, and could it be until the end of April, the PMOS replied that we would not be giving a running commentary on how long the investigation would be going on for.

Asked if the Prime Minister was still in regular touch with Lord Levy, the PMOS replied that Lord Levy’s position remained unchanged. The Prime Minister had spoken quite openly about how he values Lord Levy’s role at the press conference in Ramallah.

Put to him that Lord Levy’s lawyers clearly feel that he has been hung out to dry, the PMOS replied that if the journalist looked at exactly what Lord Levy’s lawyers said, it was not about No10. Put to him that Lord Levy’s friends felt that he had been hung out to dry, the PMOS replied by pointing the journalist to his earlier comments about the unfair impact this had on individuals. He stressed again that Lord Levy’s role remains unchanged.

Put to him that Lord Levy’s Rabbi said on Channel 4 News yesterday that the smear campaign against Lord Levy had a whiff of anti-semitism about it, the PMOS replied that he did not want to get drawn on what other people had said. He would simply repeat what Ken McDoanld had said yesterday that leaks of any kind in a police investigation were wrong, unhelpful and unfair.

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» Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Police Inquiry

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