No. 10 Morning Press Briefing From 30 June 2008

Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: Scotland, Zimbabwe, G8 summit and miscellaneous

Morning press briefing from 30 June 2008

Scotland

Asked what the Prime Minister had to say about Alex Salmond's comments regarding Wendy Alexander's resignation, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) said that any questions relating to Wendy Alexander and her departure should be directed towards the Labour Party.

Asked when the Prime Minister next planned to go to Scotland, the PMS said that we would not normally comment in advance on the Prime Minister's travel plans, but that he had no plans to go there this week.

Asked about the Glasgow East by-election, the PMS said that that was a question for the Labour Party.

Zimbabwe

Asked if the Prime Minister would be speaking to anyone today about Zimbabwe, the PMS said that we were in close contact with both leaders in the region and our international partners. As journalists were aware, Lord Malloch-Brown was attending the African Union Summit in an observer capacity, but if there were any further comments from Prime Minister we would update people this afternoon.

Asked what the Prime Minister thought should happen now, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had commented on this in the last few minutes. There was a meeting of the African Union today and we welcomed the recognition of the problem by some African leaders who had been speaking out; we had always made clear that the solutions to Zimbabwe's problems must be African solutions. We would continue to speak to our international partners to look at how we could intensify the sanctions regime and would continue to bring the maximum pressure to bear on Mr Mugabe and his cabal.

G8 Summit

Asked if there were any meetings planned ahead of the G8 Summit and what the Prime Minister's top priorities were for the summit, the PMS said that the main issues for the G8 Summit were global economy, oil and food prices and global action on climate change. Leaders at the G8 would also want to take stock of various other international issues including Zimbabwe, which we very much anticipated to be a live issue next week.

The PMS went on to say that there were no specific meetings planned for this week but we were in very close contact with G8 partners in the run-up to a meeting of this kind.

Miscellaneous

Asked if the Prime Minister saw himself as a show court player, the PMS said that if journalists didn't mind he would lob that one back over the net.

Asked if the Prime Minister would attend the Wimbledon final if Andy Murray managed to get through, the PMS said that he was not going to get into hypotheticals.

Asked if the Prime Minister was confident that he would lead the country into the next general election, the PMS said yes.

ENDS

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