Transcript of questions taken by Gordon Brown on the Gaza crisis and the UK economy prior to a trip to the emergency Gaza summit in Egypt.
Sophie Long: The Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered British naval resources to help monitor and stop weapons being smuggled into crisis-torn Gaza. Gordon Brown said Britain was also prepared to help make sure that there was proper protection and monitoring of the crossings into Gaza.
Prime Minister: How are you? Sorry about the timing.
Unnamed female reporter: Right. I understand you have an update on… Gaza.
Prime Minister: I…I’ve been talking in the last day or two to prime minister Olmert and to president Abbas and I’ve talked in some detail with this to Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany and Nikolas Sarkozy in France. I’m more hopeful now that there will be a ceasefire. Germany, France and Britain have just sent a letter to Israel and to Egypt saying that we will do everything that we can to prevent the arms trafficking, which is at the root of some of the problems that have caused the conflict. Britain is prepared to give naval resources so that we can monitor and stop arms traffic and arms getting into Gaza. I believe that will help get a solution to this crisis and we are prepared to do everything to help also with the crossings to make sure that there is proper protection and therefore proper monitoring as well and I believe some of these things that France, Germany and Britain - and I gather Italy and Spain are now offering - will help expedite a solution to these problems.
Unnamed female reporter: But how confident can you be that any deal will actually stick?
Prime Minister: I believe there is a general understanding that the appalling violence and the tragedies that have happened should come to an end as quickly as possible and I’m more hopeful because in my talks with president Mubarak and with prime minister Olmert and president Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and now in my talks with European leaders, we have found a way that gives greater assurances about bringing an end to the arms trafficking and making it possible to open up the border crossings and if we can deal with that and the rocket attacks stop on Israel, I believe we now have the basis for a ceasefire. We are prepared to provide British naval support to stop arms trafficking. Other countries are agreeing also that they will provide the support that is necessary to stop arms getting into Gaza. At the same time, we’re prepared to provide European support for monitoring at the crossings. Now these are some of the outstanding issues that have got to be resolved and the help that we are able to give is, I believe, important and now Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority knows the assurances we’re giving in the letters that we have sent to the various capitals. I think it will make it more easily able for people to come to a ceasefire. Can I also say that we are ready to provide a very substantial stepping up of humanitarian aid. If the ceasefire comes, we have people ready to bring supplies into Gaza, we are prepared to help move children, to take them out of the area so that they can be treated elsewhere. We are also determined that we’ll do everything in our power to deal with unexploded bombs so that people feel more secure in the Gaza area and we are stepping up in addition to the hundred million we’re giving the United Nations for their operations in Gaza over the next five years the humanitarian aid that we are able to provide. Britain will not found to be lacking in the support that we are prepared to give to deal with the suffering that is obvious in the Gaza [word unclear].
Unnamed female reporter: OK. On a domestic issue, we’re expecting another announcement on banking in the next few days. How fair is it that the British people should be bailing out the banks for a second time?
Prime Minister: The issue for us is how we can support British families and how we can support British businesses. The key feature of banks is that we need a financial system to enable people to feel secure about their savings, for businesses to get working capital, for families to be able to get and continue to have mortgages. Now what we’re seeing at the moment is in every country of the world, but particularly America at the moment, banks having to report massive losses and massive write-downs and as far as British banks are concerned, the greatest problem that we have is international. It is the exposure of British banks to international losses that is the biggest problem that we face and in our domestic economy, we see banks have diminished, foreign banks have diminished the capacity that they have to lend in this country. So what we need is an international solution to this. I’ve been talking to leaders across the world about how we can have an international solution to what is a global financial crisis affecting every country because of the failure of the banks to work. These talks will continue over the next few days. They will lead up to decisions that I believe the international community has got to make about how we modernise and change and reform and get to the roots of the problems that make us angry about the way the banking system has been operating. In the meantime, we in Britain will do everything we can so that families can feel secure about their savings, so that mortgages can continue to be provided and so that businesses can get the loans that are necessary for the working capital that they have. That is what is behind all the measures that we’re proposing and have taken over the last few days.