Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Tessa Jowell, Sir Nigel Crisp and Guantanamo.
Tessa Jowell
Asked that when Tessa Jowell had told Nigel Evans in a letter that her understanding was that her husband had not owned shares in a pub chain, did she mean by that that Mr. Mills had not told her, or that he had never actually owned shares, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that his understanding was the latter, but he recommended that the journalist check with the Department as he was not giving a running commentary on it.
Asked if it was not possible to make a profit on shares without selling them, the PMOS said that these were not issues which he was going to do a running commentary on, but again suggested people spoke to the Department.
Put that the point about hedge funds was that they entered someone into a contract to buy shares, believing them to be undervalued; they then entered into a contract to buy shares, and by the time the money was handed over to buy shares, they were sold simultaneously, and the hedge fund hoped that the value had gone up, so money had been made by trading on the shares without having owned them, therefore, was there some discrepancy in the Ministerial Code, because Mr. Mills had made a profit out of the shares, the PMOS said that he again referred people to Tessa Jowell’s letter when she said that she was not aware of any transactions.
Put that the fact that Tessa Jowell was not aware of any transactions was not the point, as the key point was that if someone was the beneficiary of the shares, or of the profit, she would have had to have made a registration in the Register of Members’ Interests, and was it possible to say definitely that David Mills was not the beneficiary of the shares or profit, the PMOS replied that Tessa Jowell had dealt with it in her letter, and if people had further questions, they should speak to the Department.
Sir Nigel Crisp
Asked if Sir Nigel Crisp had now really taken "early retirement" or had he been sacked, the PMOS said there was no need to use air quotation marks with his fingers around "early retirement"! As the PMOS had said this morning, Sir Nigel had had a very distinguished career in the Health Service for 20 years, with the past 5 years being in his current role. The Prime Minister recognised that without Sir Nigel, we would not have had the reform programme as it was, and that was why as Sir Nigel took early retirement, the Prime Minister had recommended him for a life peerage. The Prime Minister did not do that lightly, as he could only recommend life peerages like this one 10 times in a Parliament. Therefore, it should give people some idea of the esteem in which the Prime Minister held Sir Nigel. In terms of Sir Nigel, as the PMOS understood it, he recognised that we were entering a new era of reform, as it was one that would take quite considerable commitment over A long period. Therefore, for his own personal reasons, Sir Nigel wanted to retire at this stage, which we understood.
Asked if the Prime Minister ever recommended life peerages "lightly", the PMOS replied that he could broaden his comments, but what he was trying to illustrate was that if there were only 10 non-political life peerages that could be recommended in Parliament, if one was used, it therefore was a sign that the person concerned was held in genuine esteem.
Put that there were therefore 9 left, the PMOS said that he could see where the Sky two-way was going, and he was not going to go there!
Asked if the Prime Minister was willing to withdraw any names that were "sticking" with the scrutiny committee, the PMOS replied that he did not give running commentaries on recommendations for peerages, he just announced them!
Guantanamo
Asked if the Prime Minister had changed his view about Guantanamo being an anomaly to closing it down, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister had always said it should be an anomaly which should be dealt with sooner rather than later. The Prime Minister had equally recognised the circumstances under which it was set up.
Asked if the Prime Minister had found it helpful that so many MPs were involving themselves in trying to persuade the American Government to change its stance on extradition, and had he spoken to President Bush about it, the PMOS said that the presumption behind the question was that in some way, this was an issue which we had not been discussing with the US Administration. That presumption was wrong. We had been discussing it on a regular basis, and we continued to do so, and we had also made our views known to Congress on a regular basis as well.
Asked if the Prime Minister had formal representation from the CBI, the PMOS said he was not aware of any.
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