Briefing from the Prime Minister’s spokesman on: Cabinet, Israel, pensions, post offices and the economy
Cabinet
The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) began by giving a read out of Cabinet. There was a presentation from Hilary Benn ahead of the publication tomorrow of the Pitt Report into flooding; the Prime Minister gave an update on Iraq and a read out of his trip to Afghanistan; there was a presentation from Ed Balls ahead of the publication of the Sutherland Report. The main discussion at Cabinet concerned the publication of the Hooper Report this afternoon.
Israel
Asked for details from the meeting the Prime Minister had had with the Israeli Prime Minister, the PMS said that they had met this morning at 0730. The meeting was an opportunity to discuss the prospects for peace in the Middle East and both men were strongly committed to making all possible progress. They also discussed the issue of Israeli settlements and the importance of the Palestinian economy and measures that could be taken to reduce the constraints on the Palestinian economy. Asked for more specifics on this, the PMS said that as we had set out before and as the Prime Minister had said yesterday, we believed that it was important to establish a stable economy for a potential Palestinian state.
A viable Palestinian state was reliant on having a flourishing private sector and we recognised that restrictions on trade and movement and capital flows had an impact on the development of that private sector. We were strongly committed to working with all sides to ease those constraints.
Penisons
Asked if the Liam Byrne statement was in regards to the overpayment of pensions, the PMS confirmed that it was. Asked if the principle remained that people would not have to pay back any money, the PMS said that that was the case.
Asked if it was not a matter of importance that taxpayers had been wrongly paid pensions for up to 30 years in some cases, the PMS said of course it was a matter of importance and that was why we were tabling a WMS setting out what had happened and what action the Government had taken.
Asked if the Prime Minister thought it was right to cut pensioners income at a time of economic uncertainty, the PMS said we recognised that through no fault of their own, some public sector pensioners had been overpaid and that we believed that it would be unfair to ask them to repay the money. It would also be unfair to taxpayers to compound the administrative error by letting the situation continue. So we would be adjusting pensions so that pensioners received the correct amount in future.
Post Offices
Asked for more detail on the discussion in Cabinet on post offices, the PMS replied that people would have to wait for the publication of the Hooper Report for the detail. There was a presentation from the Business Secretary and a positive discussion to which most Cabinet members participated.
Economy
Put that the Governor of the Bank of England had said in a letter to the Chancellor that additional measures would probably be needed to support lending, the PMS said that in his response, the Chancellor had said that the Government would keep this and other measures designed to support lending under review. We now had the Lending Panel which had agreed changes to the credit guarantee scheme and these had been announced yesterday.
Asked whether the Prime Minister was concerned that inflation was not falling as sharply as expected, the PMS said that the views of the Government were set out clearly in the Chancellor’s letter to Mervyn King.
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