Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Cabinet, Zimbabwe and misc
Morning press briefing from 24 June 2008
Cabinet
The Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) began by giving a summary of Cabinet, which lasted for about 90 minutes. The main
items discussed were the future of the NHS on the basis of a presentation from Professor Ara Darzi on the main
conclusions of his review, which would be published next week. There was also a discussion about renewable energy in
light of the Renewable Energy Strategy, to be published by John Hutton on Thursday and an update from David Miliband
regarding the European Union Council last week and where we were on Zimbabwe.
Asked whether Cabinet discussed actions being taken by Unions, the PMS said it did not come up.
Zimbabwe
Asked what the current situation was in regards to Zimbabwe, the PMS said that we had had a very strong statement from
the UN Security Council last night, with the Security Council united in condemning the actions of the Government of
Zimbabwe and calling on the results of the 29th March elections to be respected.
As far as the Government was concerned, this was a very good outcome from the Security Council and we would continue to
discuss the way forward with our partners in Europe and at the UN and in the region. The PMS understood that there would
be a further meeting of SADC today and that would be the next step forward.
Put that the Prime Minister would be meeting Nelson Mandela today and would the Prime Minister ask Mr Mandela to
intervene in any way, the PMS replied that it was a private meeting and Mr Mandela was not actively engaged in politics
at the moment. Our main focus in terms of dealing with the situation in Zimbabwe was our discussions with the current
generation of African leaders. Put that the Prime Minister had the chance to influence the most iconic and influential
African in the world, the PMS said that it was really up to Mr Mandela to decide if and how he said something. It was
not for the Prime Minister to make any recommendations to Mr Mandela about how he should behave. Mr Mandela was here to
attend events in honour of his 90th birthday, so it was very much a private trip.
Asked when the Prime Minister last spoke to President Mbeki, the PMS said that the Prime Minister spoke to President
Mbeki yesterday.
Put that there had been reports in The Times that there were two military options that the MOD had for Zimbabwe and had
the Prime Minister discussed either of the options with the Defence Secretary, the PMS replied that we should not get
ahead of ourselves. Mark Malloch Brown had said yesterday that this was not a plausible course and one that would not
enjoy international support, so people should not get too exited about these reports.
Put that a Zimbabwe cricket tour was still scheduled to go ahead, the PMS said that our view on this was that under
current circumstances, the tour would clearly be unwelcome. It was important to make a distinction as there were two
potential tours next year; there was the bilateral tour, which under current circumstances would be unwelcome and
separately there was the ICC Twenty20 World Cup, an event organised by the ICC, which happened to be taking place in
England. Again, under current circumstances, we would have serious concerns about Zimbabwe participating in the Twenty20
World Cup, but this was a matter that we would need to discuss further with our ICC colleagues, because this was not
something solely in our gift to take a decision on.
It was worth noting that the South African cricketing authorities were suspending their relations with Zimbabwe. Asked
if this was something we would consider doing, the PMS said that was really a matter for the ECB to take a view on. We
were discussing this with the ECB and they shared our general assessment that we had serious concerns about the prospect
of these tours taking place next year. Asked whether the Government would consider compensating the cricketing
authorities, the PMS said that these were all matters that needed to be discussed with our partners in the next few
days.
Misc
Asked whether the Government was concerned that Iran had taken $75 billion out of foreign banks following the Prime
Minister's comments on sanctions being imposed and was it actually the case that those sanctions had been imposed, the
PMS replied that he was not sure that any of the facts being asserted in the question were correct. The last one was
definitely not correct as sanctions were agreed by the EU yesterday.
Put that the judgment in the Stuart Wheeler case was due tomorrow and what position would the Government take if the
judgment went against it, the PMS said he would not answer hypothetical questions. He advised people to wait for the
judgment and then we would give a response.
Asked whether the Chancellor was safe in his job, the PMS said he had answered that question yesterday and he had
nothing to add to that.
Asked what was on the agenda with the Sultan of Brunei, the PMS said he was sure discussions would include oil and
regional trade matters.
Asked if there was any message from the Prime Minister to Labour MP's ahead of tomorrow's planning bill, the PMS replied
that our general position on this was that it was an important piece of legislation which was about streamlining the
planning process to enable us to take forward, among other things, our renewable energy agenda.
ENDS