On Monday, Westminster journalists staged a collective walkout of a Downing Street press briefing on trade deals by Johnson’s EU negotiator David Frost. Journalists perceived as less likely to toe the government line and ask trickier questions, including those from the Mirror, the Independent and PoliticsHome, had been separated from the rest of the group and asked to leave by the Prime Minister’s special advisers. The attempted crack down backfired when the entire group, even those asked to stay, walked out in disgust.
It appears that Johnson’s special advisers Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain have decided to start running No 10 press briefings like nightclub doormen – “not tonight, lads”.
But these stunts have consequences for the credibility of our democracy. A majority government unable to be held to account by political journalists (known as the Westminster lobby) will be allowed to go about its business largely unchallenged outside the House of Commons chamber.
