How the government’s daily coronavirus briefings went from informative to pure spin

Some journalists suspect No 10 is making the briefings so dull that there will be no media outcry when they are scrapped, writes Andrew Grice

Robert Jenrick, housing, communities and local government secretary, taking his stint at the daily briefing (PA)

I have watched every one of the daily press conferences on coronavirus held at Downing Street since March. I can’t say I’ve seen every minute since I twice briefly nodded off (a double apology to Alok Sharma, the business secretary) – one consequence of working at home and watching in a comfy armchair.

Initially, the briefings were a welcome exercise in openness. It was good to have ministers flanked by their medical and scientific advisers. There was a refreshingly high level of facts, and a relatively low level of political point-scoring.

But, perhaps inevitably, the Downing Street spin doctors gradually took back control. (After all, several worked for Vote Leave in 2016). When journalists rightly started to ask awkward questions about the government’s response to the pandemic, you could sense some in No 10 wondering whether they had made a rod for their own backs.

They tried to put up a minister with a good news story to tell, but these were sometimes old news or small beer and didn’t grab the headlines. Ministers’ responses to damaging stories became increasingly scripted, and sometimes banal. Questions from two members of the public were introduced. Nothing wrong with that but it left less time for journalists, who were denied follow-up questions when the going got tough.

The control freakery reached a new high last Thursday when Boris Johnson shielded his top scientific and medical advisers from questions about Dominic Cummings’s behaviour. True, Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty said later they had no intention of getting involved in politics. But it was not about a “political argument” as Mr Johnson claimed, but whether Mr Cummings’s behaviour might reduce public compliance with lockdown measures. Other experts had no such qualms: Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, pointedly told Saturday’s presser the rules “apply to all”.

Some journalists suspect No 10 is making the briefings so dull that there will be no media outcry when they are scrapped. But Mr Van-Tam’s comment showed the merits of continuing with them. It would be better if the media had daily unfettered access to the expert advisers, but politicians would never take such a risk.

So the show must go on, preferably with advisers not muzzled by politicians, and fewer non-announcements from ministers so that we can all stay awake.

Yours,

Andrew Grice

Political Commentator