Press / Keir Starmer just declared war on the lobby |
This evening, Downing Street has announced a major overhaul of the ‘lobby’ briefing system. Currently, accredited political reporters are invited to twice-daily briefings with No. 10 spokesmen. But Tim Allan – the newly-appointed executive communications director – wants to change all that. He plans to scrap afternoon briefings and host ‘occasional’ morning press conferences in place of morning briefings. ‘Content creators’ are to be invited along too. Allan claims these changes will ‘better serve journalists and to better inform the public about government policies.’
Naturally, most lobby journalists disagree.The current and outgoing chairmen of the parliamentary press gallery have declared that they are ‘furious’ at the changes, unceremoniously announced, without consultation, just before the Christmas recess. In a statement, David Hughes and Lizzy Buchan pointed out........