Downing Street Says ... Every day the Prime Minister’s Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as ‘the lobby’ for a topical chat, or ‘briefing’.

Every day the Prime Minister's Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as 'the lobby' for a topical chat, or 'briefing'.

Downing Street Says... is an unofficial site that lets you read summaries of these briefings and add your own comments. Want to know more?

» Thursday, July 2, 2009

Royal Mail

Asked what the Prime Minister thought needed to be done about Royal Mail s pension black hole, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) said that, as Lord Mandelson said yesterday, the pension remained a matter for the company and the pension trustees. The Government had been clear about the basis on which we would [...]

Standards Legislation

Asked if the Prime Minister was still confident that the standards legislation could do the job it was intended to do, the PMS said yes; the issue on which the Government lost the vote yesterday was not central to the core of the bill, which was about allowances and expenses and the move from self [...]

Crossrail/Public Spending

Asked if the Guardian was right to say that there was a question mark over crossrail going ahead, the PMS said that the Government remained committed to crossrail and the position had not changed. Asked if that meant that there was no basis to the story, the PMS said that we had not yet announced the [...]

Misc

Asked if the Prime Minister was embarrassed by the fact that two of the big decision that had been announced yesterday on Royal Mail and on nationalisation were made by unelected Cabinet Ministers who could only be scrutinised properly in the Lords, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was not embarrassed; there was a [...]

» Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Public Spending

Asked if the Prime Minister had made a mistake at PMQs this morning when he said that there would be a 0% rise in public spending, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) said that the Prime Minister had meant to refer to a 0.7% rise in current spending, which was clear when you looked at [...]

Post Office

Asked if it was possible to progress with the bill and then action it once market conditions were right, the PMS said that we wanted to legislate when we were in a position to implement. Lord Mandelson had said that we would not cherry pick different parts of the legislation. Asked if that [...]

Misc

Asked why the Prime Minister had not been involved if a request had been made by the Opposition to see information on public spending, the PMS said that we knew nothing about this subject; the first we knew about it in Downing Street was yesterday. The Prime Minister had not been involved or consulted [...]

Iran

Asked if the UK was suggesting to other EU partners that there should be sanctions against Iran, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) referred journalists back to the statement that was made by EU Foreign Ministers at the weekend; there needed to be a strong collective response to Iran s actions, particularly in relation to [...]

Public Finances

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Lord Mandelson that George Osbourne had been sending out deliberate untruths about the access the Conservatives had regarding information on public finances, the PMS said that the Prime Minister s position on the question of access to information was that he knew nothing about this situation; he had [...]

Michael Martin

Asked about Speakers getting peerages, the PMS said that there was a motion passed by the whole of the House, which was uncontested, that The Queen should make an appropriate gesture to mark Mr Martin s service to the public. The longstanding convention has been that Speakers get a peerage. Asked if the Prime Minister [...]

Misc

Asked about the likelihood of shipyard programmes being cut, the PMS said that the Government s commitment to ensuring that we had the right naval equipment and that it was produced in British shipyards had been demonstrated by our commitment to procure two new aircraft carriers and have them built in Britain. original source.

» Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Public Spending Cuts

Put that there had been reports of heated exchanges at Cabinet about spending cuts and how would he characterise the exchanges at Cabinet, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that he would characterise the general mood and exchanges as being very constructive and good tempered. Asked if there was a move towards [...]

Michael Martin

Asked if it was appropriate for Michael Martin to get a peerage, the PMS said that this was a decision that was taken on the basis of a recommendation from the House of Commons in an uncontested motion about ten days ago. Asked if the Prime Minister supported it, the PMS repeated that it was [...]

ID Cards

Asked if the announcement on ID cards was a retreat by the Government, the PMS replied that he would not accept that characterisation. The Home Secretary had talked about the accelerating the role-out of ID cards. Put that parts of the roll-out would not be compulsory anymore, the PMS said that there was one change [...]

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Thursday, July 2, 2009

Royal Mail

Standards Legislation

Crossrail/Public Spending

Misc

» Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Public Spending

Post Office

Misc

Iran

Public Finances

Michael Martin

Misc

» Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Public Spending Cuts

Michael Martin

ID Cards

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