New: The Lobby has staged a walkout in protest at No10 attempting to remove journalists from left-of-centre publications from a Downing Street briefing
No10’s version of events
“Full briefing happened for all. Smaller selected briefing for specialist senior journalists (incl guardian) arranged. Uninvited Journalists barged in and demanded to be part of it. It was made clear - only those invited could stay. They chose to leave”
“Full briefing happened for all. Smaller selected briefing for specialist senior journalists (incl guardian) arranged. Uninvited Journalists barged in and demanded to be part of it. It was made clear - only those invited could stay. They chose to leave”
No10 claims this was just a briefing for “specialist” journalists — though those invited included Laura Kuenssberg and Robert Peston as well as other political journalists — who all joined the walkout in protest
No10 source says it introduced the concept of "inner lobby" six months ago, inviting senior journalists to technical briefings, but not other reporters
"Those invited have told us that inner lobby has been very helpful"
No10 source says none of those reporters complained before
"Those invited have told us that inner lobby has been very helpful"
No10 source says none of those reporters complained before
Today's "inner lobby" briefing was to be given by PM's Brexit adviser David Frost to a small group of senior journalists
Around 30 other reporters asked to enter. Boris Johnson's director of comms Lee Cain told them they could not
Inner lobby and outer lobby then walked out
Around 30 other reporters asked to enter. Boris Johnson's director of comms Lee Cain told them they could not
Inner lobby and outer lobby then walked out
Under Theresa May, Gavin Barwell and Robbie Gibb would invite selected journalists into No10 for private technical briefings
Lobby source:
"Around 10 journalists were on the list - while 5/6 of us were asked to stand the other side of the room. They were the Mirror, the Independent, the i, Huffington Post, the Evening Standard, PoliticsHome and the Times"
"Around 10 journalists were on the list - while 5/6 of us were asked to stand the other side of the room. They were the Mirror, the Independent, the i, Huffington Post, the Evening Standard, PoliticsHome and the Times"
