Boris Johnson's communication chief must resolve spat with political journalists, culture secretary says

Nicky Morgan's intervention comes after a walkout by correspondents over Downing Street's attempt to exclude selected titles from briefing

The culture secretary Nicky Morgan has called for Boris Johnson’s communications chief to sit down with Westminster’s political journalists and resolve an ongoing spat over selective briefing.

Baroness Morgan’s comments follow a walkout by senior journalists in protest at an attempt by No 10 to restrict a briefing on Brexit negotiations to reporters from approved publications and broadcasters only.

The culture secretary – whose departmental brief covers the media – said director of communications Lee Cain should meet the chairs of the parliamentary lobby and press gallery, who represent accredited journalists working in the Palace of Westminster.

Her intervention came after cabinet colleague Michael Gove declined to stand up for Downing Street‘s handling of the situation, telling BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday that he would neither “criticise nor endorse” either side until he had heard a full account of events.

Labour has denounced what it describes as a “Trump-like” attempt to control media access. Party leadership contender Keir Starmer called on the head of the civil service to launch an investigation into the use of non-partisan officials to brief reporters selected by political appointees.

Answering questions after a speech on the future of the media in Westminster, Lady Morgan rejected suggestions that the selective briefing was “Orwellian”, saying: ”I don’t think that is any kind of motivation. There’s always going to be a relationship of mutual benefit but also mutual... some difficulty between media and politicians.

“But at the end of the day I don’t think it serves anybody for this, as a debate, to be continuing, and I hope very much that the best thing would be for the co-chairs for the press lobby here in Westminster to sit down with the director of communications and to work this out.”

Correspondents including BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg and ITV’s Robert Peston walked out of a planned presentation by chief Brexit negotiator David Frost at 10 Downing Street on Monday after Mr Cain ordered reporters from certain publications to leave.

It was the second time in a week that No 10 had attempted to restrict access to a technical briefing by civil servants, following a similar incident in relation to Huawei’s involvement in the 5G telecoms network.

In a letter to cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill, Sir Keir said the “deeply disturbing” actions may have “undermined the civil service’s ability to comply with its core values of integrity, objectivity and impartiality”. He warned: “Banning sections of the media from attending important briefings about important matters of government is damaging to democracy.”

Lady Morgan said Mr Frost was a political appointee, adding: “I think there has always been a system of technical briefings on particular technical issues and that’s what was happening. What is needed is communicating clearly to the public about the tricky issues this government is dealing with.”