Downing Street Says

Asked if the Prime Minister was premature to rule out an inquiry into Mr Byers, Mr Hoon and Ms Hewitt, before the programme was broadcast, the PMS said, the Prime Minister was clear there must be no blurring of the line between public service and private gain and therefore completely condemned the claims made by former Ministers. He drew attention to Sir Gus O’Donnell’s letter to Frances Maude that makes it very clear that both he and the Prime Minister thought it important that, “such claims should be immediately investigated”.

They were, and there are clear statements from the three departments: Department of Health, Transport and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) which came out yesterday afternoon. Permanent Secretaries are the accounting officer for their departments so therefore it is their responsibility to ensure that these matters of probity are dealt with. It was very clear that Sir Gus and the Prime Minister have taken the relevant action and the Prime Minister’s views are very clear.

Put again that the Prime Minister took his decision before the allegations had been broadcast, the PMS said that the allegations were out there in the public domain.

Asked how the Prime Minister felt about a former Minister describing himself as a cab for hire, the PMS said the most important thing the Prime Minister wanted to do was to ensure, with Sir Gus, that this quick investigation took place, which had now been done.

Asked if the Prime Minister had a view on whether these three are still suitable candidates for a peerage in the future, the PMS said, there was no further comment.

Asked if the Prime Minister actually watched the programme last night, the PMS said, no, but he was briefed on it.

Put that all the Prime Minister cared about was clearing the serving Cabinet Ministers, and people might conclude that he and Sir Gus acted with such haste that it was just a whitewash to clear those two Ministers, the PMS said it was entirely appropriate that Sir Gus looked into the specific allegations made. He had done that, and the three Permanent Secretaries had made it quite clear there was no substance in the allegations.

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» Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Lobbying

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