Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Iraq, Human Rights, Home Office and Education Bill
Iraq
Asked how optimistic the Prime Minister was about Iraq, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that yesterday we saw in Baghdad the benefits of democracy. We now had a national unity government which genuinely represented all the people of Iraq. Whether it was the meeting with Prime Minister al-Maliki, or President Talabani, and his Sunni and Shia vice presidents you got a real sense of a government of national unity. That was what was important.
Put to him that the new Prime Minister of Iraq had a very good relationship with Iran and asked if the Prime Minister expected there to be talks concerning Basra and the suspected flow of weapons from Iran into the South of Iraq, the PMOS said that as he said yesterday the Iraqi government had spoken explicitly about Basra yesterday. They had announced that a high level delegation would go there to talk to community groups. He didn’t want to speak for the Iraqi government but he believed they would have contact with Iran itself. It was only right to give the new government space to see what it could do to take control of the situation. The Iraqi Government quite rightly saw Basra as hugely important to the success of Iraq as a whole because it was an entrepot and was very important economically. Therefore the new Iraqi Government’s interests were the same as ours, which was to calm the situation down and let the infrastructure spending and improvement go ahead, which was what everyone in Basra wanted.
Asked if we could expect to see further announcements of troop withdrawals from Iraq, the PMOS said that we should be clear about the situation with the troops. It was not an issue that we were in any way worried about discussing or defensive about. We had been quite clear, as had the Iraqi Government. Nobody wanted our troops to stay in Iraq forever. Equally however no group, be it Shia, Sunni, or Kurd, who didn’t have links to the insurgency, wanted the troops to withdraw immediately. What we needed was a situation where, if the conditions were right, we could pull back our troops and then withdraw. It was that condition based approach which would guide everything we did and what the Iraqi Government wanted us to do. As conditions improved, and we should bear in mind the Iraqi Prime Minister had said he wanted this process to start in June, we would pull back troops province by province. The important thing to remember was that of the 18 provinces, 14 were relatively calm and therefore the process could begin. That process would develop its own momentum, that was the important thing.
Put to him that the Iraqi military might not be big enough to manage a full replacement, the PMOS said that looking at it from the other end of the glass, we now had 250,000 members of the Iraqi army. What mattered just as much as the numbers of troops was the readiness, and that was the key word, of Iraqi troops to take responsibility. That would be the key test in terms of training, equipment and experience, they had to be ready. The Iraqi Prime Minister had made it very clear yesterday that he wanted this process to go as quickly as possible. Not because his first priority was to get our troops out, but because his first priority was to see Iraqis take control of their own destiny. That meant focussing on issues such as improving security in Baghdad and improving energy supplies in Baghdad so that he could be seen to be delivering for the people. This government had the same political motives as any other government, it wanted to be seen to be delivering for the people who elected it.
Human Rights
Asked to clarify the Prime Minister’s remarks concerning a re-balancing of Human Rights, the PMOS said that this country has been a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights for 50 years, and that was why we had the Human Rights Act. The Human Rights Act was a very important piece of legislation. However there were problems in this country with issues such as deportation, which other countries who had legislation which reflected the ECHR did not have. On this issue you couldn’t have a partial view. You couldn’t say that the rights of an individual took precedent over the rights of the community. Of course you had to respect the rights of the individual but also had to balance that with the rights of the community. It was a mistake to take a partial view because that ended up with the community at large thinking you were not protecting their interests as a whole and people lost respect for the very thing you want them to have the most respect for. Therefore while obviously we respected people’s views, and we were not distancing ourselves from the principles enshrined in the Human Rights Act, we did have to look at practice. In terms of legislation, that was being studied at present so he wouldn’t get into that.
Home Office
Asked about the numbers of foreign terror suspects claiming asylum here, the PMOS said that in terms of detail people should talk to the Home Office. He pointed out that if someone had a criminal record that was a reason for refusing citizenship. He would also point out that in terms of the balance between applications and removals we had now reached a the tipping point where there were more removals than new applications. That was a significant step forward and he was sure that it would be hitting the front pages any day now given the acreage of coverage the issue had received in the past.
Asked when we could expect figures for the number of foreign prisoners in Scotland, the PMOS said that was a matter for the Home Office and the Scotland Office. What was important was that John Reid was methodically working his way through the issue and was updating Parliament on a regular basis. That was how it should be. No one was pretending that this was not an important issue but as with the Human Rights issue people shouldn’t take partial views on this. There was an issue, we had recognised that and we were now actively addressing it.
Asked whether the Prime Minister discussed the change of Tony McNulty’s role with the Home Secretary, the PMOS said that he wasn’t going to get into the process. In terms of Tony McNulty the Prime Minister believed it was important to play to people’s strengths and Liam Byrne had a background as a consultant. He was used to managing projects and change management and this was undeniably a change management project.
Education Bill
Asked if the Prime Minister would be meeting any MPs today to try to get their backing for the Education Bill, the PMOS said that as Alan Johnson had made clear over the weekend, we recognised that votes were likely to go the way they had gone in the past. The important thing today was that this bill would progress and the measures it contained concerning individual learning, discipline, and giving parents greater choice would be put in place.
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