• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Johnson aide should sort out feud with journalists, says Morgan

The Culture Secretary said Lee Cain should meet Westminster correspondents after disagreements prompted a boycott of a Number 10 briefing.

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
February 5, 2020
in Politics

Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan has called for Boris Johnson’s communications chief to resolve a feud with political journalists over the freedom of the press.

Baroness Morgan said on Wednesday that Lee Cain should meet Westminster reporters after disagreements prompted a boycott of a Number 10 briefing.

Senior members of the “lobby” of political journalists walked out of the talk on the Prime Minister’s Brexit plans when their colleagues were shut out.

Unfavourable coverage

The exclusions prompted fears that certain members were being barred because of unfavourable coverage and the head of the Civil Service was urged to investigate the “deeply disturbing” move.

Baroness Morgan said director of communications Mr Cain should meet the Mail’s Jason Groves and the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar, who, as elected chairman and chairwoman of the lobby and the press gallery respectively, made clear they were “always very happy to talk”.

The Cabinet minister recognised there had been “some difficulty” between the media and politicians when asked about the subject after a speech on the future of the media at the Policy Exchange think-tank.

She defended the selection of certain journalists to attend the “technical” briefing with the PM’s Europe adviser, David Frost, and said the lobby had been given access to Mr Johnson’s Brexit speech and discussions with his official spokesman.

RelatedPosts

Leave-voting fish merchant says Brexit is ‘absolute nightmare’ as industry is ‘destroyed’

Post-Brexit shoppers forced to pay a third extra to bag EU goods

‘We warned about that last year’ – Northern Ireland protocol problems ‘foreseeable’

Fishing industry could be ‘destroyed’ without customs changes, MPs warn

“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,” she said.

Orwellian intent

She denied that the move was carried out with an Orwellian intent – a reference to a fictional totalitarian state from George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Correspondents from organisations that were not on Downing Street’s handpicked list turned up at Monday’s Brexit briefing following concerns over an earlier selective briefing with civil servants on Huawei.

The two groups were separated on either side of a rug in Number 10’s entrance hall, and Mr Cain ordered one half to leave.

When his actions were questioned, he told reporters: “We are welcome to brief whoever we want, whenever we want.”

In protest at the treatment of colleagues from rival organisations, all the journalists present chose to walk out rather than receive the briefing.

Left-wing or critical of the Government

Those excluded included outlets viewed as left-wing or critical of the Government, although Downing Street sources said it was “clearly nonsense” to claim the decision was made on political grounds.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn raised the issue in the Commons, saying it was “no wonder the Prime Minister is shutting newspapers out of Number 10″ as he highlighted criticism of his Government.

Mr Johnson replied by saying Labour had blamed the media for the party’s disastrous election campaign.

“I don’t blame them – I’m a journalist, I love journalism, and I think the people of this country don’t blame the media,” he added. “They can see the media do their best to represent the reality.”

“Deeply disturbing” move

Labour leadership hopeful Sir Keir Starmer wrote to Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill, calling for him to investigate the “deeply disturbing” move which he said was “damaging to democracy”.

He argued that the media’s access to the PM’s chief negotiator “should not be determined by political favouritism”.

Related: Dominic Cummings is creating his own Ministry of Truth

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The other prison pandemic

Credit;PA

Repressionomics: Get ready for the new permanent austerity

Latest from TLE

Image by AdobeStock

Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for London, Saturday 23 January 2021

Lucky Numbers and Horoscopes for today, 23 January 2021

Image by AdobeStock

Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for London, Saturday 23 January 2021

Euro Millions results Friday 22nd January 2021

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.