
Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing.
? Downing Street signalled that David Cameron did not accept Philip Hammond's argument that further savings should come from the welfare budget and not from the Ministry of Defence's budget. Hammond made this point in a series of interviews at the end of last week.
Asked if Cameron agreed, the prime minister's spokesman replied: "I would just remind people that the autumn statement of 2012 has already announced ?3.6bn's worth of welfare savings."
He also invoked the spirit of our old friend, Amy Del (AME/DEL). The review considering spending for 2015-16, which is taking place in the first half of this year, will consider DEL (departmental expenditure limits, or the amount departments plan to spend) not AME (annual managed expenditure, which covers welfare spending not included under DEL because it can go up or down depending on uncontrollable factors such as unemployment), the spokesman said. It was a clear hint that the 2015-16 savings will not come from welfare.
But the spokesman did not entirely rule out further benefit cuts. He also said that "if new specific proposals [for benefit cuts] were to emerge, then they would need to be considered".
Here's Tom Newton Dunn's take on this.
? Cameron's spokesman was unable to cite any evidence showing that migrants are attracted to the UK by the desire to claim benefits. The European commission has described this suggestion as a myth. Asked if there any evidence to prove that "benefit tourism" existed, the spokesman said that the government was drawing up plans to restrict claims by migrants (see 9.01am) in response to "widespread public concern". This covered services such as housing and the NHS, the spokesman said. People were concerned about the pressure on these services exerted by migration.
There's a widespread sense of concern. That's what the government is considering how best to respond to.
The spokesman acknowledged, as Eric PIckles did this morning, that local authorities already have the right to priorities local people when allocating housing. (See 9.45am.) But there could be an opportunity for the government "to provide further clarification and reassurance in that specific area", the spokesman said.
Discussing the plans generally, the spokesman said the government was considering a range of options and that Cameron recently chaired a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee looking at them. He refused to give any more detail.
Asked about suggestions that proposals to restrict access to the NHS could lead to Britons being issued with the equivalent of an ID card (see 10.56am), he said Cameron had not changed his views on ID cards. (In other words, Cameron remains opposed to them.)
? The spokesman said the poor lending figures released today did not mean that the Funding for Lending scheme was a flop. Today's figures related to the last quarter of 2012, he said. Lending figures for January were up. "The Bank of England at the time was clear that it would take some time for the impact of policy to be fully felt."
? The spokesman said the government was still committed to introducing a minimum price for alcohol. A report at the weekend said the proposal was "dead in the water" because the government could not afford to increase the cost of living. But the spokesman said the government's position was "unchanged". He said that a consultation on the idea finished last month and that the government would announce the next step "in due course".
? The spokesman welcomed the letter in the Times from Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, defending the government's "secret courts" legislation. (See 10.56am.) Woolf's letter highlighted an important point "which is that decisions around closed material proceedings are in complete control of the judge", the spokesman said.
? The spokesman said that Cameron continued to believe that Sir David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, was doing "a good job". Twenty MP want Nicholson to resign because of the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal.
? The spokesman said the government remained committed to the European convention on human rights. The coalition agreement says the government will continue to meet its obligations under the ECHR, the spokesman said. He said that comments from ministers suggesting that Britain could leave (see 9.01am) related to proposals for the Conservative party manifesto.
? The spokesman played down reports that Cameron could try to legislate for an in/out referendum on Europe before the 2015 election. "The position is entirely as it was set out in the prime minister's speech [on Europe]," the spokesman said. In that speech, Cameron said the Conservative party would produce draft legislation before the election, but he did not say he would try to get it through parliament.
? Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, and Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, are today announcing that 150 Jobcentre Plus advisers will be hired to help troubled families get into work.
? William Hague, the foreign secretary, is visiting Mali.
? The Home Office has launched a consultation on new laws designed to stop people supplying printing equipment to people who create fake documents.
? The Ministry of Defence is announcing a ?226m investment in a training centre at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire relating to the Airbus Military?s A400M programme.
? The Department for International Development has announced a package of measures to support girls and women in poor countries.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2013/mar/04/benefit-crackdown-migrants-live-blog
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