Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Iraq Debate
Iraq Debate
Asked what was new in the Prime Minister’s opening remarks to the debate on Iraq in the House of Commons this afternoon, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said we had never claimed that people would hear any new argument because the Prime Minister had been consistent in his view as to why the war in Iraq had been right. The only new thing today was his response to the Butler Report in terms of his announcement relating to the formal establishment of an ad hoc Cabinet Committee to deal with any future situation, in addition to the announcement of the new JIC chairman on an interim basis and then a permanent appointment to be made in 2005 under the criteria set down by Lord Butler. Asked if the Prime Minister had been signalling the end of "Government-by-sofa", the PMOS said that he had simply been referring to a formalisation of the process which was already taking place.
Asked if he would agree that the Prime Minister had appeared nervous at the start of the debate, the PMOS said no. The Prime Minister had always considered this to be a genuine debate, which meant that he wanted to take as many interventions as possible during his opening statement.
Asked why the Prime Minister had not been informed privately, if it had been deemed inappropriate to make it known publicly, that a particular piece of intelligence relating to Iraqi chemical and biological weapons capability had been withdrawn, the PMOS said that as he had told journalists last week, the process of validation had still been ongoing at the time. Moreover, the piece of intelligence in question had only formed one part of the picture on Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons. Asked if any intelligence officer had told the Prime Minister at any stage that the intelligence was flawed, the PMOS said he was not aware of anyone having told him such a thing.
Asked if the Government was intending to issue any further response to the Butler Report after today, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had opened today’s debate and the Foreign Secretary would close it. That, as far as we were concerned, would be it in terms of a formal response.
[Video of the Prime Minister taking part in the Iraq debate will be available on the No10 website tomorrow]
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