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, November 20, 2008

Baby P

The Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) began by telling the assembled press that the Baby P statement from Ed Balls was an update and followed on from the exchanges at DCSF Questions earlier this week. Asked if the statement would be substantive, the PMS repeated that he expected it to be an update. It was [...]

Economy

Asked if there was any response to mortgage figures and retail sales, the PMS said that we didn t normally comment on monthly figures. These figures fluctuated from month to month and this was clearly a difficult time for the British economy as it was a difficult time for the global economy. This was why [...]

Iceland

Asked about where we were on the package for Iceland, the PMS replied that there was a joint statement that had been put out by the UK, Dutch and German governments which read: In supporting the IMF programme the UK, the Netherlands and Germany welcomed Iceland s commitment to meet its obligations to depositors and [...]

SME Meeting

Asked for a read-out of the meeting, the PMS said that this was one of a series of meetings that the Prime Minister was having, listening to the concerns of businesses. We recognised that some small and medium-sized businesses were facing tough times and that was why, as the Prime Minister had said in the [...]

Gurkha Petition

Put that the Gurkhas would be handing in a petition at No10 today and would there be any further Government announcements on the issue, the PMS said that the Government position on this was set out by the Home Secretary at the time of the recent court case judgement. Where there was a compelling case, [...]

Pirates

Asked about a possible EU force in the Gulf of Aden to combat piracy, the PMS emphasised that this was something that had been under consideration and been looked at and planned for, for some time. Planning was under way for an EU mission to the region to help combat pirating as a successor to [...]

» Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Economy

Asked to explain what the Prime Minister had meant when he talked about plans to bring forward proposals to get banks to lend to businesses, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that this was something that we kept under constant review. There was a particular issue surrounding the resources available to small [...]

John Sergeant

Asked if the Prime Minister was dismayed about John Sergeant’s decision to quit Strictly Come Dancing, the PMS replied that he was sure there were a number of other distinguished former Chairmen or even the current Chairman of the lobby who might be prepared to step into the breech. top original source.

» Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Efficiency Programme

Asked about the Efficiency Programme s target of 30 billion, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) replied that the Chancellor would give an interim report on the Government s Efficiency Programme and in particular where things stood in light of the review that we set up in the Budget, which Yvette Cooper announced details [...]

Iraq

Put that Lord Goldsmith s advice to the former Prime Minister that the Iraq war was legal was flawed, and asked for a response, the PMS replied that we had been over this ground many times before. Fortunately the PMS s predecessor covered this on many occasions. Jack Straw had responded on behalf [...]

Immigration

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Phil Woolas that there were some immigration lawyers out there who were playing the system, the PMS replied that he had not seen the comments, and as usual would like to see them in their entirety to ensure we had the proper context before commenting. But if [...]

Cabinet

The Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) began by telling the assembled journalists what had been discussed at Cabinet. There was an update from Ed Balls and the Children s Minister Beverley Hughes on where we were on child protection issues in light of the Baby P case. There had been a brief update from [...]

Child Protection

Asked for more details of the update given by Ed Balls, the PMS said it was really a summary of the events of the last week and the action that the Government had announced in recent days. Asked if there was any sense of surprise around the Cabinet table that no one had resigned over the [...]

Government Efficiency

Put that the PMS had said that the Chief Secretary had stated that there was scope to go beyond the figures mentioned, the PMS replied that what the Chief Secretary did say was that the Chancellor would be updating the House in the PBR on what the interim conclusions were of the reviews of the [...]

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, November 20, 2008

Baby P

Economy

Iceland

SME Meeting

Gurkha Petition

Pirates

» Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Economy

John Sergeant

» Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Efficiency Programme

Iraq

Immigration

Cabinet

Child Protection

Government Efficiency

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