Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Elections, Secretary Rice, Middle East, EU and Scotland
Elections
Asked how the Prime Minister was going to get the Government back on track after the poor local election results, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) replied that the Prime Minister answered this question himself this morning, and there was nothing more to add on that.
Asked how the Prime Minister heard the results, and was he up late last night, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister got the results this morning.
Asked who had the interesting duty of telling the Prime Minister the results, the PMS replied that he was not sure that he wanted to go into too much detail on internal Downing Street processes, although he was sure Lobby would all be very interested.
Asked how he would characterise the Prime Minister’s mood this morning, the PMS replied that everyone could see the Prime Minister’s mood themselves this morning.
Asked if it was listening or upbeat, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister was listening and leading.
Asked if the Prime Minister was listening and learning, the PMS replied that he was learning as well.
Put that there had been a suggestion that the Prime Minister should be concentrating on the economy, and should start passing questions on departmental briefs to other people, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had been making very clear, and he made clear again this morning, that the economy was the key issue at the moment.
Asked if we would get to the point where the Prime Minister would actually say that he has Ministers to deal with these other issues, the PMS replied that we were already at this point, we did have Ministers to deal with other issues, and they were dealing with them.
Put that the Prime Minister had tended at the moment to answer questions on other issues, the PMS replied that obviously he was the Prime Minister and so was head of the Government. Of course he had to take responsibility for all of the major issues that his Government was responsible for, but he had been making clear that the economy was the issue that he was mostly focusing on at the moment.
Asked if we could expect any major policy announcements next week as the Prime Minister tried to re-energise his Government, the PMS replied that we would deal with next week next week.
Asked for more details on the draft Queen’s speech, the PMS replied that this would be the Government’s draft legislative programme, and as he had said the other day, there was quite a lengthy discussion of this at Cabinet. Last year this happened in July, at the first opportunity after Mr Brown became Prime Minister, but because we wanted to have a lengthy and thorough period of consultation we would expect it to be earlier this year. When we were in a position to give further details on timing, we would let people know.
Secretary Rice
Asked to expand a bit on the Prime Minister’s meeting with Condoleezza Rice this afternoon, the PMS replied that Condoleezza Rice was here for the meetings of the Quartet, the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee and the E3+3. That was why she was in London, and she was calling on the Prime Minister as an opportunity for them to catch up.
Asked what was on the agenda, the PMS replied that he thought it would be issues around Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, and possibly the economy.
Middle East
Asked what the key objective of the Middle East meetings were, the PMS replied that there was a whole series of meetings on the Middle East today. The focus of the Quartet meeting would be on maintaining momentum behind the Annapolis process and the Annapolis conference, addressing the situation in Gaza, and supporting the work of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee that the Norwegians chaired. In parallel, the Foreign Secretary was hosting a meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers which would push for greater engagement on the Middle East Peace Process, and then those two groups would come together for a Quartet and Arab joint meeting - quite a significant initiative to bring both the Quartet and the Arab Ministers together in one forum.
EU
Asked what the reaction was to a High Court decision this morning granting Stuart Wheeler a judicial review, the PMS replied that the reaction had already been given by the Foreign Office. This decision simply meant there would be a hearing, and did not affect the outcome of the case, and the threshold for what constitutes an arguable case at the permission stage of the judicial review was low. We had seen similar cases brought by this before in respect to earlier treaties, so no great surprise, but those challenges in the past had all failed.
Scotland
Put that there would be quite a milestone in Scotland tomorrow with the first anniversary of the SNP administration, and asked how the Prime Minister thought the Scottish Government had done over the past year, the PMS replied that this was not something the Prime Minister would want him to comment on on his behalf. The Scottish Executive were accountable to the people of Scotland, it was not for the Prime Minister to pass judgement on specific administrations.
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