Briefing by the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: Lord Myners, Iraq inquiry, Government gilts and Czech Prime Minister
Lord Myners
Asked whether the Prime Minister was happy for Lord Myners to create the impression that he didn’t know how big Fred Goodwin’s pension was, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that Lord Myners had set out his position on this in quite some detail in his evidence to the Treasury Select Committee and the PMS had nothing further to add to that.
Asked why Lord Myners had allowed people to believe that he didn’t know how big the pension pot was, the PMS said he didn’t necessarily agree with the premise of the question. Lord Myners had made his position clear on what he knew about the pension and when he knew it when he gave evidence to the Treasury Select Committee.
Asked if the Prime Minister regretted that Sir Fred Goodwin’s house had been attacked overnight, the PMS replied that there could be no excuse for anyone breaking the law.
Iraq Inquiry
Asked whether any inquiry would be a Privy Council or behind closed doors inquiry as opposed to a public inquiry, the PMS said that he recognised that there were going to be a lot of people wanting further details on the terms of reference and the nature of any inquiry into the Iraq War. As we had said repeatedly, we were not going to open that question now.
David Miliband had said that we would begin that process after July 31st. Asked for guidance on timing, the PMS said that as soon as practicable was pretty clear. There were a range of considerations that would need to be taken into account and that was what David Miliband and others would be doing after the troops had been withdrawn in July.
Asked if it would be months after the withdrawal, the PMS replied that he would not put a timeframe on it, it would be as soon as was practicable. Asked repeatedly what the range of considerations would be, the PMS said it would include things like ongoing operations in Iraq and the availability of resources to commit to an investigation, but he would not start defining what the conditions would be that would lead people to make a judgement on how long “practicable” actually was.
Put that the Foreign Secretary had spoken warmly about the prospect of a private inquiry and would the Prime Minister share that view, the PMS said that that was an attempt to draw him in to what the nature of the inquiry would be and as he had said he would not get into that at this stage. Asked why the Foreign Secretary had talked about this, the PMS said that that was another attempt to draw him into what the nature of an inquiry would be. The Foreign Secretary chose his own words and the PMS would not speculate at this stage. That was a question that would rightly wait until combat troops had returned from Iraq and the Foreign Secretary had made clear that further consideration would be given to this after the 31st July.
Asked if the prospect of a public inquiry was still on the table, the PMS repeated that he would not start getting into a discussion of the nature of an inquiry into the Iraq war, its terms of reference or any other detail. The Foreign Secretary had set out the Government’s position.
Asked repeatedly to clarify what he meant by the availability of resources in his range of considerations, the PMS said that an inquiry of this nature into the Iraq war would draw on resources from a variety of Government departments, from the armed forces and other areas. When the Foreign Secretary agreed that we would carry out an inquiry as soon as was practicable, that meant as soon as those requirements could be met.
Government Gilts
Asked if the Prime Minister was still confident the Government could continue to raise money in the bond market, the PMS said that the Treasury had already given their response to the events in the gilt auction today. They had drawn peoples attention to the evidence that the head of the Debt Management Office gave to the Treasury Select Committee last year, when he had said it would be wrong to read anything into the results of one auction event, which depended on the gilt on offer, demand and the market conditions on the day.
Asked if it was fair to say the Prime Minister was untroubled by the events of the morning, the PMS said the point on the gilt auction was that there had been other auctions that had been uncovered in other countries. For example, Germany had had two this year and eight last year. The underlying strength of the market in gilts was demonstrated by the fact that yields remained low. The shortfall in funding today could be made good in future auctions.
Czech Prime Minister
Asked if the comments made by the Chairman of the European Union were helpful in the run-up to the G20, the PMS said that the Czech Prime Minister had signed up to the language in the communiqué at the end of the European Council, which had been agreed at the Council last week. This committed the European Union to taking a range of measures including fiscal measures and member states stimulus measures as well and that remained the position of the European Union.