Statement from Shirley Williams

5.13.48pm GMT Thu 28th Jun 2007

I met Gordon Brown at 6:30pm on Wednesday evening. We had a friendly and constructive discussion. I was not offered a Ministerial position and would not have accepted one.

"The Prime Minister and I talked briefly about the dangers of unsecured nuclear materials and nuclear proliferation, subjects I have worked on as a member of the Board of Directors of the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington DC.

"NTI is a private organisation established by Senator Sam Nunn of the Democratic Party, former chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, and Ted Turner, founder of CNN. Senator Richard Lugar of the Republican Party, former chairman and now ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is a Director.

"NTI, a public charity, is devoted to reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. It builds on the bipartisan Nunn-Lugar initiative after the end of the Cold War, which succeeded in de-activating over 6,000 nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union.

"NTI has done a great deal to secure nuclear weapons and nuclear materials in the countries of the former Soviet Union, among them Russia itself. It is also concerned with the securing of chemical and biological weapons. I am the only Briton on the board.

"Mr Brown suggested that I might be able to advise his Government on these and related matters. I told him that I would discuss his suggestion with Menzies Campbell and Lord McNally, Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, as well as with NTI, and would then get back to him."