Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Reshuffle, Afghanistan-Iran, Rendition, Select Committee response, Hamas, Europe Speech, David Cameron, David Blunkett, QinetiQ Shares and IMC Report
Reshuffle
Asked if the Prime Minister was delaying a reshuffle because he wanted to keep junior Ministers in line over education reforms, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) replied that it was much obvious a question for him to answer. He did not answer reshuffle questions.
Afghanistan-Iran
Asked what were the objectives for the talks involving Dr. Rice and others about Iran, the PMOS said that the primary reason people were in London was for the conference on Afghanistan. There would be 60 delegations at the conference, so it was a major conference, and a chance for the international community, Afghanistan and the UN to look ahead and take a strategic overview of where Afghanistan was going. They also needed to review progress since 2001 and to then plan what happened next in terms of developing Afghanistan economically, developing its infrastructure, and also politically, with part of that being what we had announced in terms of security and reconstruction last week.
On Iran, the PMOS said that Chancellor Merkel had underlined the emerging consensus there was, both about the seriousness of the issue that we had to deal with, vis-a-vis Iran, but also how we took this forward. The PMOS said we would see where things stood by the IAEA meeting on Thursday, but there was a developing consensus, both about the significance of the issue, and about the way to handle it.
The PMOS said it was clear that the international community recognised the significance of this issue, and that we welcomed.
Asked what the consensus of China and Russia was around Iran, the PMOS replied that Iran had broken its international and UN obligations. The question was: how did we deal with that? The PMOS said he could not pre-empt the position of other countries.
Rendition
Asked if the Prime Minister was going to raise the issue of extraordinary rendition with Dr. Rice during their meeting, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had set out the position on rendition, therefore it did not take tonight’s dinner for the American administration to be aware of our position.
Asked why France, China and Russia had chosen not to send their Foreign Ministers, the PMOS suggested that the journalist spoke to those countries instead to find out.
Select Committee response
Asked if there might be a formal response to the Select Committee about the education reforms, the PMOS replied that we were in a process where people were contributing to the debate. As the PMOS had said last week, we welcomed the fact that the Select Committee supported the ideas of independent trust schools as a way of moving forward on education and a strategic role for the LEAs. There were other issues which we would reflect on, but we were at the stage where we had not yet published the Bill. We would do so in accordance with the timetable we had set out for publication sometime this month, and the Second Reading would be in the middle of next month. The PMOS said we would take it step by step.
Hamas
Asked what the feelings were about Hamas, the PMOS said the onus was on Hamas to make its position clear. Was it a political force, or was it committed to violence? It had to make its choice. The key facts remained that the solution remained as a two-state solution, and that was the common view of the international community, and that remained the position of the Government.
Asked further about the two-state solution, the PMOS said that what was important was that there should be a considered view from Hamas as to how it saw its future, and we awaited that considered view. Equally, we should not in any way give any doubt as to what we saw the ultimate solution to be, which was a two-state solution, living side by side in peace.
The PMOS said that the flip-side of the coin was that we recognised the democratic mandate. Equally, we had to be clear that Hamas was committed to the political path, and not to the violent one.
Europe Speech
Asked for further information on what the Prime Minister would say in his Europe speech later this week, the PMOS said it would be a broad vision of where he saw Europe at the moment.
David Cameron
Asked if the Prime Minister was flattered or embarrassed that David Cameron had praised the Prime Minister in his speech, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister would get on with his job, but would leave it to others to express their views, whatever they may be.
Asked if he was relaxed on having to rely on David Cameron’s support on education, the PMOS said that was a very sneaky, hypothetical question, so he was not going to go down that road!
David Blunkett
Asked if David Blunkett was right to say that there was a new understanding between the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, the PMOS replied that he had nothing to add to what the Prime Minister did not say this morning live on air.
QinetiQ Shares
Asked if the Prime Minister was happy with the huge profits that QinetiQ had made, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister would agree with John Reid, who had set out the case on Thursday. The Government had only sold a minority share, and therefore the tax payer had benefited by the eight-times increase in the value of the company, as much as any other shareholder. Therefore, it had turned out to be a good deal for the tax payer.
Put that was not what the market had said, the PMOS said the market had said it was eight times more valuable than it was in this period eight or ten years ago.
IMC Report
Asked to comment on the Indepedent Monitoring Commission report (IMC), the PMOS said that the IMC were due to deliver a report today.
Asked to comment on the leak in the Irish Times, the PMOS said he had read the Irish Times this morning, but it was better to wait and see what the IMC report said.
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