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Government denies £2.6m studio ‘wasted money’ after scrapping plan for White House-style briefings

‘It will be used by future governments,’ says culture minister

Adam Forrest
Wednesday 21 April 2021 13:23 BST
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Boris Johnson announces antivirals taskforce at latest press conference

Boris Johnson’s government has denied its new £2.6m media suite amounts to “wasted money” after ditching its plan for White House-style press conferences.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner claimed the prime minister and his team was “running scared” over regular scrutiny – accusing them of “wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money” on the studio.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden denied it was a waste, insisting the facility would still be used by ministers to make government announcements. “This was just about building a modern press facility,” he told LBC on Wednesday.

“It won’t just be used by this government, it will be used by future governments, it’s very similar to what many governments around the world have. So it’s not wasted money in that sense – it is just a normal press facility for government.”

Mr Johnson’s media chief Allegra Stratton – hired partly to front the planned TV briefings – has revealed she will instead become the spokeswoman for this year’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.

“I am delighted to be starting this new role. The Cop26 climate conference is a unique opportunity to deliver a cleaner, greener world.”

The planned TV press conferences were due to start last October, set to be fronted by Ms Stratton three times a week. The need for regular Covid crisis briefings pushed the plan into 2021.

However, No 10’s new director of communications Jack Doyle reportedly had doubts about the wisdom of the idea.

Downing Street has now decided “no good could come” from the briefings, fearing they could create negative clips for social media over difficult issues, one government official told Politico.

Some commentators suggested the awkward question Mr Johnson faced on Tuesday, posed by The Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh on the Jennifer Arcuri story, showed why No 10 was keen to avoid regular TV briefings.

Asked whether he had acted with “honesty and integrity” in his dealings with Ms Arcuri, the prime minister said “yes,” before moving swiftly on to the next question.

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