Briefing from the British Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Chinese Foreign Minister, Downing Street Christmas Tree, Reform
Treaty, Supermarket Price Fixing, President Barroso, Prime Minister Prodi and English Lessons.
Afternoon press briefing from 7 December 2007
Chinese Foreign Minister
The Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) started by updating journalists on the Chinese Foreign Minister's visit to London
yesterday when he met with David Miliband and had a pre-arranged meeting with Simon McDonald (the Prime Minister's
Foreign Policy Advisor), which the Prime Minister dropped in on for approximately 20 - 30 minutes. At this meeting they
discussed a variety of things including the Prime Minister's visit to China in the new year; the situations in Darfur
and Burma and the proposals the Prime Minister set out in his Mansion House speech on the form of international
institutions.
Asked if the Chinese supported the proposals Britain was putting to the UN next week re measures against Iran, the PMS
replied that we should wait and see; there would have to be a discussion of the situation regarding Iran next week. The
Chinese had been supportive in the past; obviously we wanted to do this on a multi-lateral basis, so we should wait and
see how things developed over the coming week. As had been increasingly clear following the report from the US earlier
this week, it remained the case that the situation regarding Iran remained serious.
Asked if the issue of Chinese industrial espionage came up, the PMS said he was not aware that that had come up in the
Prime Minister's meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister and it was best to check with the Foreign Office to see if it
came up at any other meeting.
Asked if the Prime Minister saw the Government's relationship with China as more like the relationship France was
pursuing or Germany's more stand-offish relationship, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was focussing on what
Britain's relationship with China was, rather than trying to come up with a relative ranking. The Prime Minister
believed that Britain should have a strong relationship with China. Insofar as there were human rights issues, these
would be raised in the appropriate way, but the Prime Minister had always said, as Chancellor and now Prime Minister
that the UK's relationship with China needed to be a strong one; we shared a number of common interests and China was a
key international partner.
Dowing Street Christmas Tree
Asked why there was no Downing Street Christmas tree, the PMS replied that there was a Downing Street Christmas tree; it
had been put up that morning.
Reform Treaty
Asked why the Prime Minister thought it was not necessary to go and sign the Reform Treaty in person, the PMS replied
that we had made no such decision; as he had said endlessly at numerous lobby briefings, it was the Prime Minister's
hope to be able to go but we had logistical issues around the timing of the Liaison Committee. There were lots of
precedents for people other than the Prime Minister signing European treaties; one should be under no doubt at all that
whoever signed the treaty was fully supported by the Prime Minister. He negotiated it, it would be signed on behalf of
the Government, of which he was the head and he took full responsibility for it. It would be unwise at this point to
conclude that he was not going to be able to go there to sign it.
Asked repeatedly about the timing of the signing of the Treaty and whether or not it could be signed earlier in the day,
the PMS said that if people really wanted to go over these issues again he would be more than happy to, but he felt as
though all lines of potential questioning had been exhausted. The committee had already kindly agreed to move the timing
of their hearing by bringing it forward an hour; we were in continuous discussion with the Portuguese presidency re
arrangements. This would be resolved in an appropriate way ahead of the summit next week.
Supermarket Pricing Fixing
Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned that two of the country's biggest supermarkets were fixing the price of milk,
the PMS replied that it was often forgotten that it was the Prime Minister, when he was Chancellor, who brought forward
very significant reforms, in conjunction with Patricia Hewitt (then Secretary of State for DTI), regarding the
competition regime; it was this Government that introduced the independence of the Competition Commission and it was the
Prime Minister, when Chancellor, who had introduced the independence of the Bank of England. That had happened in 2001
and as a result of that we had seen, not commenting on specific cases, competition policy with more edge, with benefits
for consumers.
Put that in this case fines would be paid and that the Prime Minister must have a view, the PMS replied that we would
not normally comment on individual decisions taken by other independent bodies like, for example, the Bank of England;
we would not comment on individual companies and specific decisions taken by them, but this was a good example of the
new framework operating in practice.
President Barroso
Asked if the Prime Minister had been upset with President Barroso's comments regarding the EU Africa summit, the PMS
said one should not draw that conclusion. The Prime Minister had made his position very clear regarding the reasons why
he did not feel as though it was appropriate for him as the British Prime Minister to attend this summit given that Mr
Mugabe was attending. That said, we did want the summit to be a success; we were participating in the summit, although
not at Ministerial level; Baroness Amos was representing the Prime Minister and she had been talking about what the
British Government was hoping to achieve from this summit on the radio this morning.
Prime Minister Prodi
Asked what would be on the agenda for the Prime Minister's meeting with the Italian Prime Minister, the PMS replied that
the discussions would be wide-ranging; obviously there was the Lisbon summit next week where we were expecting a
discussion about the European response to globalisation. Other live European and international policy issues would be
covered, such as Kosovo. It would be a wide-ranging and fairly informal occasion.
Asked why there was no press conference, the PMS replied that it was a private lunch at Chequers so that imposed some
restraints on what could be done in relation to media. On this occasion they wanted to have something a bit more
informal, out of the spotlight; an opportunity to have a slightly longer and informal discussion.
Put that Prime Minister Prodi was having a press conference at Heathrow, the PMS said that that was an issue for Prime
Minister Prodi. There was no particular significance in regards to not having a press conference; as had been stated,
this was an informal lunch at Chequers. The Prime Minister had an excellent relationship with Prime Minister Prodi,
which went back many years; they had worked very closely together when the Prime Minister was Chancellor and Prime
Minister Prodi was at the European Commission.
English Lessons
Asked if the Prime Minister thought it was time to consider cutting the entitlement to free English lessons, the PMS
replied that if it was a specific departmental issue, then it would be best to raise it with the department. In general
the Prime Minister was very supportive of the principle that people coming into the UK should integrate and learn the
language of this country.
ENDS