Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Smoking, PM’s Plane, Terrorism Bill, ID Cards-Votes this week, PM-President Bush Meeting and Valentine’s Day
Smoking
Asked how the Prime Minister would be voting in today’s vote on smoking, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that people would have to wait and see. Since this was a genuinely free vote, we had no intention of pre-empting it for fear of that being seen as an attempt to give a lead to others. The PMOS also took the opportunity to warn journalists not to be surprised if they saw ministers going into different lobbies.
Put to him that the Labour Party could be said to be giving a lead on the issue in the light of what was written in the manifesto, the PMOS said it was clear that smoking would be banned in most public areas, whatever happened. Since the measures had been brought in in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, public opinion had continued to evolve. That was why we had decided some weeks ago to have a free vote on the issue. Put to him that, presumably, the Prime Minister would not be listening to the debate in the House today and whether that meant that he had already made up his mind on how he would vote, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had a view on the issue and would no doubt express it.
PM’s Plane
Asked if Downing Street recognised the pictures published in today’s media showing a "luxurious looking" DC8 and the figure of £170,000 as the cost to hire it, the PMOS said that hire costs were a commercial matter and it was therefore inappropriate for him to get drawn into a debate about it. Suffice to say that we received a competitive rate for a plane that did the job (mostly). Asked why the Prime Minister and his party had not used the Queen’s Flight, the PMOS said that, as he understood it, the length of the journey to South Africa had been an important factor which it had been necessary to take into account when making the arrangements for the visit. Asked if the incident had increased the need for a "Blair Force One" aircraft, the PMOS said that, as journalists were aware, a review of the whole issue was ongoing.
Terrorism Bill
Asked if the Prime Minister was intending to vote tomorrow on the Lords’ amendments to the Terrorism Bill, the PMOS said yes. Asked if he would expect to win and what his response would be in the event of a defeat, the PMOS said that it was important to take things one step at a time and understand exactly what it was that we were trying to achieve. As we had said last week, we wanted to send a clear signal that we were doing everything we could to counter terrorism. We believed that there were substantial concerns that needed to be addressed.
There were several problems with the Lords’ amendments as they currently stood. Firstly, all references to glorification had been removed. Secondly, the indirect encouragement offence and proscription criteria had been narrowed so that those groups which chose to glorify terrorism, such as through placards and images (rather than speeches), were not covered. Thirdly, the amendments would allow groups or individuals to praise or celebrate recent terrorist acts without making prosecution or proscription of the groups possible. Finally, those groups which chose to associate themselves with statements glorifying terrorism, rather than making statements directly, were currently not covered by the proscription criteria. These were real concerns which we believed needed to be addressed.
Asked if the Prime Minister would view a defeat tomorrow as an indication of his lack of authority, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister believed it was important to address the substance of the issue. First and foremost, this was about Parliament sending a strong signal to the courts and the police, as well as those who might engage in the glorification of terrorism, that such a thing would not be tolerated.
Asked if the Prime Minister had sought an update from police regarding any action taken against protestors demonstrating in London two weeks ago, the PMOS said that the matter was being dealt with by the appropriate authorities. It would therefore be unwise for him to give a running commentary on what was happening.
Asked if what had occurred at the demonstration could be linked in any way to tomorrow’s debate on the glorification of terrorism, the PMOS said that he was unable to comment on individual cases for legal reasons. All he could do was to note the general legal assessment that had been made of the Bill as a result of the Lords’ amendments, as he had done. Put to him repeatedly that the Chancellor had linked the demonstration and tomorrow’s debate and yet Downing Street was refusing to do so, the PMOS said that he would disagree with the journalist’s assessment. It was perfectly legitimate to say, as we had said, that the protests two weeks ago had been completely unacceptable. Equally, it was perfectly legitimate to make a legal assessment of the Bill. We had no intention of commenting in any way on particular cases. Individual prosecutions were a matter for the CPS and the police, not us.
ID Cards-Votes this week
Asked what message yesterday’s vote on ID cards would send to the House of Lords, the PMOS said that it was important to note that there had been clear support for ID cards. We had never claimed that they were a "silver bullet". However, we believed that they were an effective tool which could be used in a variety of different ways. The clear signal emanating from the House last night was that the majority of MPs agreed with that view.
Questioned as to whether last night’s vote on ID cards could have implications for tomorrow’s vote on the Lords’ amendments to the Terrorism Bill, the PMOS reiterated the importance of dealing with the substance of the terrorism issue. We needed to address the real concerns regarding what the Bill currently did not cover as a result of the amendments to it. Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about the number of Backbench MPs consistently voting against the Government, the PMOS said that, as a civil servant, he was unable to comment on party matters other than to say that the Government had been elected on a manifesto which the Prime Minister was determined to carry out.
PM-President Bush Meeting
Asked when the Prime Minister was next due to meet with President Bush, the PMOS said that he was not aware of any particular date in the diary at this stage. Asked if the two leaders would meet before the next G8, the PMOS said that we would have to wait and see.
Valentine’s Day
Asked if the Prime Minister had received any Valentine’s Day cards this morning, the PMOS - peering down at the array of woebegone faces before him - said that there were some questions that he didn’t think were appropriate to ask the Prime Minister.
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