Morning press briefing from 14 April 2008
Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Prime Minister's meeting with City Leaders, Goldman Sachs event, economy, Prime Minister's mood, food prices, Turkish Foreign Minister and Miscellaneous
Prime Minister's meeting with City Leaders
Asked if the meeting tomorrow was the one the Prime Minister had referred to last week in his interview with the BBC, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said no and that one of the Sunday papers had erroneously reported on this subject. The Chancellor would have a meeting with the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the main mortgage lenders, which would probably take place next week. The Chancellor was in China at the moment and for most of the week. The Prime Minister's meeting tomorrow was with a much wider city group; it was more of an informal breakfast meeting of the type that he had from time to time and they would be mainly discussing global financial issues ahead of the Prime Minister's meetings with people in Wall Street on Wednesday.
Asked if there was a cast list for the meeting with city leaders and what the Prime Minister would be saying, the PMS said that he did not have a specific cast list to hand but, as far as we were concerned, this was more of an informal meeting that the Prime Minister had from time to time to hear the perspective of people in the city regarding what was happening in global financial markets at the moment.
Asked if this meeting could be described as a crisis meeting, the PMS said that he would not describe it in those terms at all. It was the sort of meeting that this Prime Minister and previous Prime Ministers had as a matter of course. There was a separate meeting, as mentioned before, to discuss the specific issues in relation to the mortgage market that the Chancellor would have next week.
Asked if the meeting would only be attended by people in the city, the PMS said that there would be representatives of retail banks and investment banks; the sort of people who represented institutions that contributed a significant amount of income and employment to this country.
Asked if lobby groups would be there, the PMS said that he did not have an exact cast list but that it was a fairly routine, wide-ranging breakfast with people from the city. It was the sort of thing that the previous Prime Minister had done from time to time and the sort of thing this Prime Minister had done when he was Chancellor.
Asked when the last meeting had taken place, the PMS said that the Prime Minister met people from the city all the time.
Asked when this particular meeting had been arranged, the PMS replied that it had been in the diary for some time. The Prime Minister was meeting people in Wall Street during his trip to the US and in advance of that he wanted to take stock of the situation as perceived by people in the city.
Goldman Sachs event
Asked what the event at Goldman Sachs was, the PMS replied that it was a Goldman Sachs private event, which the Prime Minister would be speaking at, and that his words may be released.
Asked if a particular subject would be discussed, the PMS replied that they would discuss similar themes around the situation in the global economy and global financial markets.
Economy
Asked if the Prime Minister accepted that his message regarding the economy was not getting through to people and that the public no longer had faith in him, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister's view was that these were difficult times for the global economy and that the UK could not be insulated from that. Therefore, it was entirely understandable that people in this country were concerned about the prospects for their own well-being.
The Prime Minister had addressed this point explicitly in his article in the News of the World on Sunday; it was completely understandable that people had concerns at this time. It was also important to remember that over the past 10 years the UK had out-performed the major European economies; we were the fastest growing country in the G7 last year and the IMF forecasted us to be the fastest growing economy in the G7 this year. Of course, at a time of global economic uncertainty like this, when people read about these issues in the newspapers and saw reports on the television everyday, it was understandable that people had concerns.
In the Prime Minister's view we had set out a long term course; we were taking action to bring down inflation by the action we were taking on public sector pay, which had enabled the Bank of England to reduce interest rates. Because we had reduced Government debt as a proportion of GDP and because we had one of the lowest Government debt-GDP ratios of any major economy, we were able to stick to our public spending plans by increasing borrowing even at this difficult time. The Prime Minister was also taking action globally to try and restart the world trade talks but also to try and take action to improve confidence in global financial markets so we could inject more liquidity into global financial markets and we could create the conditions whereby when the Bank of England reduced interest rates they could be passed through to mortgage holders.
Asked if the Prime Minister thought that the economic crisis would get worse before it got better, the PMS replied that the Government's views and the Government's forecasts on the economy were set out in the Budget. The Treasury produced its forecasts twice a year and that represented the Government's view; they would update their forecast in the Pre-Budget Report.
Prime Minister's mood
Asked how the PMS would categorise the Prime Minister's mood this morning following a few days of difficult headlines, the PMS replied that he would categorise the Prime Minister's mood as being entirely focused on the issues that were of concern to people in the country. At the moment that was the economy, as well as the changes we were making to the health service, education and changes to the immigration system.
Asked if the Prime Minister was frustrated, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister's view was that the key focus for the Government needed to be on delivering change and addressing the concerns and aspirations of people who lived in this country in relation to their economic well being and in relation to the changes we were making in health, education and elsewhere.
Asked if the Prime Minister believed he was the man to lead the country through this current situation, the PMS replied of course.
Food prices
Asked if there would be any further actions regarding the food prices, the PMS said that this was clearly something that the Prime Minister and the Government was concerned about; the Prime Minister had written to the Head of G7 and the heads of major national organisations regarding the problems faced by food prices. It was something that we had put on the agenda internationally and that we would continue to discuss and take forward with our international colleagues in the days and weeks ahead.
Asked if the subject would come up during the Prime Minister's trip to the US, the PMS replied that it would come up as part of the Prime Minister's general discussions on the global economy while he was in the US. It was also something that the Chancellor had been talking about at the meetings of the IMF and World Bank over the weekend.
Turkish Foreign Minister
Asked if the Prime Minister would talk about human rights issues with the Turkish Foreign Minister, the PMS replied that this was a short private meeting and that there was a more substantive meeting that was taking place between the Foreign Secretary and the Turkish Foreign Minister so it was best to check with the Foreign Office on the exact agenda.
Asked if the Prime Minister was likely to press the Turkish Minister in regards to Cyprus, the PMS said that most of the substantive discussion would take place between David Miliband and the Turkish Foreign Minister so it was best to speak to the Foreign Office.
Miscellaneous
Asked if the Prime Minister was confident regarding the non-dom status of his special advisors, the PMS replied that all special advisors were governed by the code of conduct on special advisor appointments and all of them adhered to that.
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