Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Northern Ireland, House of Lords Appointments Commission, British Beef, Tessa Jowell and Education Bill
Northern Ireland
Asked where we were in terms of developments in Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that today’s meeting would be essentially a stock-taking exercise by the two Prime Ministers. The Prime Minister and the Taoiseach were increasingly clear about how we could move forward and today was a chance to co-ordinate their approach. In the midst of all the speculation, the key thing today was that the two Prime Ministers agreed the right approach. He suspected there would be a bit more work to be done by officials after that, but that was where we were.
House of Lords Appointments Commission
Asked about the decision by the House of Lords appointments commission to block the list of new peers, the PMOS said that, as was only right and proper, there was a process involved in the appointments commission and we didn’t provide a running commentary on that process. What we would do is announce the outcome of those discussions in the normal way.
Asked why it was taking so long, the PMOS said that these things took time, but as he had said he did not wish to get drawn into a commentary of the process. He recognised that these were perfectly legitimate questions, but it was also perfectly legitimate for him to say that he couldn’t give an answer until the process had reached a conclusion. Asked if there might be a way of announcing those Lords who had already passed through the process successfully, the PMOS said that we would announce it as one list.
Put to him that while this process was going on it was casting a shadow over the reputation of people like Dr Chai Patel who had been nominated, the PMOS said that illustrated precisely why it wasn’t wise to get drawn into any conversation about this process.
Put to him that in the past people had had to withdraw names such as in the case of Michael Ashcroft, the PMOS thanked the journalist for that historical comparison, however he was still not going to give a running commentary on the issue.
British Beef
Asked for a reaction to the EU’s decision to lift its ban on British Beef, the PMOS said that clearly we welcomed it. We believed it recognised the fast progress that had been made in terms of ensuring safety within the British beef industry and we believed it was a significant milestone which would be very good news for the beef industry.
Tessa Jowell
Asked for a response to recent revelations about Tessa Jowell, the PMOS said that he was not sure that there had been any "revelations" about Tessa Jowell since he dealt with the issue yesterday. He had nothing to add to what he said yesterday. The main thing was to point people to Tessa Jowell’s statement on Monday.
Put to him that this seemed to set a precedent where ministers could simply plead ignorance when questioned about financial irregularities, the PMOS said that in a sense this question closely resembled a question he had answered yesterday. First of all Tessa Jowell herself had said that she should have been told and had she been told she would have taken the appropriate steps. Secondly, the suggestion that in some way this was something ministers would try and use as an excuse in the future was contradicted by the experience of the past two weeks. Clearly no minister would want to go through that kind of experience. Tessa Jowell had stated her position because that was the truth of the matter.
Asked if it wasn’t the minister’s responsibility to find the information out, the PMOS said that the position was as it was set out in the ministerial code. Gus O’Donnell had tried to improve the system so as to help ministers work with it.
Asked if there was any sign of departments appointing an advisor to help ministers implement and interpret the code, and put to him that Government had accepted that recommendation and had so far done nothing about it, the PMOS said that permanent secretaries were there to help as advisors to ministers, but at the end of the day it was the ministers’ responsibility and the Prime Minister’s judgement as to whether ministers had lived up their responsibilities. Any suggestion that this should be handed over to an independent figure should take account of the fact that when you did have an independent figure, as we had in London, that was not without controversy itself.
Put to him that there was a separate recommendation for an advisor, not for an independent inquiry panel, the PMOS said that he would have a look and see what stage we were at on that.
Education Bill
Asked how many MPs the Prime Minister had spoken to this week, the PMOS said that the he did not give details about individual meetings by the Prime Minister. Asked if he had spoken to any backbench MPs, the PMOS said the Prime Minister saw those people he needed to see. Asked if the Prime Minister had full confidence in his Chief Whip, the PMOS said yes. The Chief Whip had done a very good job, as evidenced by the last vote which the Government had won comfortably.
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