The Rupert Murdoch-owned, pro-Brexit Sunday Times has impeccable contacts at the heart of government, which made the newspaper alarming reading over the weekend. The clear impression is that Downing Street has become a free-for-all and anyone – elected or not – can have a go at governing.
On page four, there was a casual reference to how Carrie Johnson had told the Metropolitan Police that one of the lockdown parties she had been accused of hosting was in fact “a strategy meeting to discuss how to deal with the fallout following the departure from No 10 of Dominic Cummings.” A few pages on, the paper stated that Guto Harri was arguing strongly against Rishi Sunak’s proposed “windfall tax” as he considered it to be “unconservative.”
Just to be clear, Carrie is the prime minister’s wife with no mandate or job – at least none that has been formally acknowledged – within No 10 that could possibly involve her presiding over any kind of “strategy meeting.”
As for Harri, he is a GB News presenter-turned Downing Street PR man. All of his predecessors understood that they were messengers, not message creators. Imagine, for a moment, Norma Major or Bernard Ingham carrying on like this pair, but, then again, no rules of any kind seem to apply these days in Downing Street.
