The government has dropped proposals to hold White House style press briefings at Number 10 – on the day the first was set to be held.
The briefings were intended to replicate the regular events held by Donald Trump’s team in America, with Allegra Stratton – a former journalist – hired to front the weekly evening television broadcasts ahead of teatime news bulleting.
Her post had been advertised with a £100,000 a year salary, with the Sunday Times reporting the Downing Street media suite created to hold the events already costing £2 million.
The Daily Mail reports the briefings have now been suspended until after the pandemic, with some Tory MPs doubting whether they will happen at all.
“There was a view that it would seem we were trying to glamorise or put a showbiz spin on a very serious story, which is Covid,” claimed a government source.
“We are looking closely at the best communication for the period we now find ourselves in,” Stratton told journalists. “We have a new strain of coronavirus that’s 50% more infectious; the prime minister’s taken the steps he’s taken in the last few days, and we are considering the best way to support this and to get across public health messaging.”
Most popular
Is Rishi Sunak about to call an election?
What is Sunak smoking?
The lies on the bus go round
The circles the Spectator runs in
