» Wednesday, May 9, 2007Prime Minister
Asked if the Prime Minister would have an audience with The Queen today, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that he would not have one today. Asked for plans regarding the rest of the week, and could the PMOS enlighten journalists on tomorrow, the PMOS said no, today was today. Asked if lobby tomorrow might be more informative than lobby today, the PMOS said that he had set such a high standard today that he worried that he wouldn’t be able to meet that standard tomorrow! Asked if tomorrow was to be treated as a Labour Party matter, the PMOS said that it was entirely a party matter. As the PMOS had said last week, whatever the Prime Minister announced about his intentions as party leader, it did not affect his position at this stage as Prime Minister. Asked when would it affect his position as Prime Minister, the PMOS replied that people should take one step at a time. Asked if it was the case that the Prime Minister would not inform The Queen as a formality that he intended to stand down, the PMOS said that he remained Prime Minister, therefore, it did not affect his position as Prime Minister. Therefore, there were formalities associated with being Prime Minister that were not associated with being leader of the Labour Party. Asked if there might be an audience with The Queen this week, the PMOS said that he was not aware that the Prime Minister was going to have one this week. Asked if there might be any other contact with The Queen this week, the PMOS replied that we did not brief on any other contact with the Palace. Asked to clarify that whenever the Prime Minister made his announcement, he would remain Prime Minister and Labour Party leader, he was simply announcing a date, the PMOS said that that was correct. Asked if the Prime Minister would be making any regional visits tomorrow evening, the PMOS replied not in association with Government business. Asked if the PMOS could reassure people that whatever happened over the next few days, the Prime Minister was still going to be fully focused doing the job and not a "lame duck" Prime Minister, the PMOS said that the best reassurance was seeing the Prime Minister in action. He would be in action over the coming weeks, both domestically on issues such as health and education, but also internationally, particularly in the run up to the G8 summit and the EU summit. Both of those summits were very important events. The PMOS said that he did not think people would be left in any doubt that the Prime Minister was fully engaged, but the best thing was to watch and see. Asked if there were still things that the Prime Minister wanted to accomplish in the time he had left, the PMOS replied that there were. The Prime Minister was very focused and Downing Street was working at full steam. Asked if the Prime Minister saw any merit in splitting up the Treasury, the PMOS replied that his best response to the question was that he briefed on what actually happened. Briefing took place at 9:00 | Search for related news Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says. |
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