Morning press briefing from 2 March 2009

Briefing by the Prime Minister s Spokesman on: Sir Fred Goodwin, US trip, Afghanistan, Business Lending Guarantee Scheme, Royal mail and misc

Sir Fred Goodwin

Asked repeatedly whether the Prime Minister agreed with Harriet Harman that Sir Fred Goodwin would not get his pension, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Prime Minister had been setting out his views on this in the last hour or so and everyone in Government was determined to ensure that we explored all legal avenues open and available to us and that was what we would continue to do.

Put that Harriet Harman had gone further by saying that Mr Goodwin would not get his pension, the PMS replied that what we were focussing on was exploring the legal options open to us. That meant, as the Prime Minister had said this morning, looking at Mr Goodwin s employment contract and whether the RBS board took the decision in full knowledge of all of the facts. Asked whether Harriet Harman had got ahead of herself, the PMS repeated that the Government s position, reiterated by the Prime Minister this morning, was that we were exploring all legal options.

Asked whether the Government was still bound by the rule of law, as Harriet Harman seemed to be suggesting otherwise, the PMS said that of course we were bound by the rule of law. That was why we had asked lawyers to examine what the legal options were available to us. The Prime Minister had said this morning that we had to operate within the framework of the law and that went without saying.

Put that the board of the bank had made the decision over Sir Fred Goodwin s pension at a time when the Government did not hold a stake in the bank, the PMS replied that he would not get into hypotheticals; at this stage we were simply asking RBS to look into exactly what the circumstances were around the board s decision at that time. Put that if the board weren t aware, the Government thought that that would be of real legal significance, the PMS said that this was something we needed to look at.

Put that reports at the weekend had suggested that the early legal opinion was that it would be very difficult to reclaim the pension, the PMS said that he was not a lawyer and that was why we employed lawyers in order to provide us with advice on those sorts of issues. The PMS added that he had not seen any initial advice from lawyers.

Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to Harriet Harman since she made her comments, the PMS said that the Prime Minister spoke to all of his senior colleagues on a regular basis, as people would expect. Asked if assets of banking executives could be reclaimable if it was found that they had done something wrong, the PMS replied that there were established legal and regulatory procedures in place to deal with these issues.

Asked if the Prime Minister accepted that there was a strong possibility that Mr Goodwin would walk away with his pension intact, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had set out his views on this a number of times. There was a lot of public anger about this and that was shared by the Government. That was why we were examining all legal options available and open to us.

Put that Harriet Harman had said that the Government would step in to stop this happening and was that not now the case, the PMS replied that what he was saying was that our focus was on ensuring we examined all of the legal options available to us and that s what we were doing. Asked what stepping in meant, the PMS said that we had asked our lawyers to look at what the circumstances were surrounding the decision that was taken in relation to this pension and the extent to which it was discretionary and the extent to which the people who took that decision were acting in full knowledge of the facts at the time.

Asked whether the Chancellor s high-level group of financial representatives was still meeting, the PMS advised people to direct that question to the Treasury.

Asked what timeframe had been set for the lawyers to look through the legal options, the PMS said that they were exploring all options. Asked if they would be Government lawyers, the PMS said that UKFI had lawyers that they used for a number of different purposes including this particular purpose.

US Trip

Asked for more information on the US trip, the PMS said that the Prime Minister would be travelling to the US later today. The Prime Minister would be meeting President Obama tomorrow as well as Vice President Biden. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister would be giving a speech to the US Congress. In terms of issues, we expected the main focus to be on the economy and the issues that the Prime Minister set out in his article in the Sunday Times yesterday. We would also anticipate discussion of Afghanistan and climate change as well as some wider international issues such as the Middle East.

Asked whether the Prime Minister was taking a gift for President Obama and was the Churchill bust on its way back to the UK, the PMS said he wasn t sure exactly what the status was of the Churchill bust. The PMS confirmed that there would be a gift reflecting the historic nature of the relationship between the two countries.

Asked if there would be any specific announcements while the Prime Minister was in Washington, the PMS advised people to wait and see. One of the issues they would be discussing in relation to the economy would be preparation for the G20. This would be the first time the two of them had met since President Obama became the President. They had met a number of times before, so this was about strengthening the ongoing relationship between the two of them and the two countries.

Asked if the Prime Minister would be bringing anything specific up in regards to the US stimulus package such as protectionism, the PMS said that the Prime Minister s views on all of these issues were set out pretty comprehensively in the Sunday Times piece yesterday and there probably wasn t much more he could add to that at this point.

Afghanistan

Asked if there were any particular countries that President Obama and the Prime Minister would be asking for more help from, the PMS said he would not start naming individual countries, but clearly this would be a big issue for discussion at the NATO Summit in early April. Asked if they would be appealing to other countries without naming them, the PMS said that in the Washington meeting, they would be discussing how we could work together to ensure that there was full burden sharing across NATO.

Business Lending Guarantee Scheme

Asked if the scheme was behind schedule, the PMS said that we were on track with the launch of the Working Capital Scheme. We were now formally entering negotiations with the banks in relation to specific portfolios.

Royal Mail

Asked if the Prime Minister was open to further consultation on the Royal Mail package, the PMS said that we were happy to discuss our proposals with whoever wanted to discuss them with us. However, we set out the legislation last week; the Prime Minister had set out why he thought the approach we had taken was the right one as had Lord Mandelson at the weekend.

Asked whether the Prime Minister agreed with the Chief Whip that Labour MP s should be free to come forward with amendments to the Postal Services Bill given that PPS s had been allowed to sign the EDM, the PMS said that sounded like a question of political management that should be addressed to a political colleague.

Misc

Asked whether the Government would consider stepping in if HSBC failed to raise the money needed through private investors, the PMS said that he would not answer a hypothetical question on something that was very market-sensitive.

Put that the US was not attending the UN Conference on Racism and was there a view from the Government on this, the PMS advised people to check with the Foreign Office.

Asked if Lord Mandelson was effectively the Deputy Prime Minister, the PMS replied that we didn t have a Deputy Prime Minister; Lord Mandelson was the Secretary of State for Business as people knew.

Asked if the Prime Minister was making a statement to the House on the European Council meeting, the PMS said that he wasn t, as yesterday s meeting was just an informal meeting.

Asked if there was an announcement imminent on quantative easing, the PMS said that as and when the Treasury were in a position to say anything more on the subject, they would do so.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page18485

seen at 23:40, 2 March in Number 10 » News Stories.