Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, IMF funding, heathrow and Oil Summit
Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross
Asked if there would be any more comment from the Prime Minister on the issue, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Prime Minister’s view, not that he had had an enormous amount of time to consider this in the light of everything else that was going on, was as expressed in the statement released yesterday afternoon.
Put that there would be no Government activity in the matter, the PMS replied that as the Prime Minister had said yesterday, Ofcom said they would be investigating the matter and it was for the BBC, the BBC Trust and Ofcom to take any appropriate action. Asked whether the Prime Minister had heard the broadcast, the PMS said he would not be going into internal processes. We had been asked repeatedly during the course of yesterday for the Prime Minister’s view, so the Prime Minister had given his view.
This was clearly a matter that had attracted a significant amount of public controversy and that was why the Prime Minister thought it was appropriate for him to express a view. The Prime Minister was spending the overwhelming majority of his time dealing with the international economic situation and he was in Paris yesterday for meetings with President Sarkozy.
IMF Funding
Asked whether the Prime Minister had had any feedback from China or the Gulf states about his plan for them to contribute more to the IMF, the PMS said that we were in constant dialogue with our international partners and we were expecting to discuss this and other matters over the days and weeks ahead.
Heathrow
Asked if the Prime Minister had an open mind on whether the third runway at Heathrow should go ahead, the PMS replied that the Government’s position on this was that it supported a third runway at Heathrow, subject to being confident of meeting the strict local and environmental conditions. That had been the Government’s position for some time and it remained the Government’s position.
Asked how the Prime Minister felt about ministers getting cold feet about the idea of a third runway, the PMS replied that clearly there were a number of ministers who had constituencies that would be affected by the expansion of Heathrow and it was right that they should express and pass on views expressed by their constituents. The Government’s position on this was very clear.
Asked if the Prime Minister had been contacted by any ministers wanting to discuss the issue, the PMS said we wouldn’t normally comment on discussion between the Prime Minister and ministers, but the Government’s position was longstanding and remained unchanged.
Oil Summit
Asked whether the oil summit in December had been downgraded to a ministerial meeting, the PMS said that as we had been saying over recent days, given the fact that there would be a world leaders meeting anyway on the 15th November to discuss the international economic situation, where no doubt oil would be discussed as part of that, we had decided to revert to the formula and approach taken at the Jeddah meeting which was that this should be primarily a meeting for Energy Ministers.
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