£2.6m telly hub by No10
DOWNING Street has spent £2.6million of taxpayers’ cash on a glitzy studio and stage for US-style press briefings.
A revamp of the Grade I-listed No9 began last year so daily, televised Q&A sessions can be held.
The Cabinet Office yesterday said the cost would come to £2,607,767.
It added: “This spending is in the public interest as the new broadcasting of lobby briefings will increase public accountability and transparency.”
POPE Francis made his most dangerous trip so far yesterday as he flew into war-torn Iraq.
Braving Covid-19 and an Islamic State resurgence, the 83-year-old Pope said he made the “emblematic trip” out of a sense of “duty”.
He touched down in Baghdad, where thousands of Iraqi troops were deployed to stop terror attempts.
The red carpet was rolled out for his first meeting with President Barham Salih at his palace. It came after a recent rocket attack on a coalition air base killed one American contractor and several others.
But Pope Francis told reporters on his plane: “I am happy to be making trips again. This is an emblematic trip and it
At scene
is a duty towards a land that has been martyred for so many years.”
The pandemic has stopped Francis from travelling and the Iraq trip is his first outside Italy since November 2019.
The Pope, who normally insists on using small cars, was driven to the palace in a bullet-proof BMW sedan. He will visit areas that most foreign dignitaries are unable to reach. He will say Mass at a Baghdad church, meet Iraq’s top Shia cleric in the southern city of Najaf and travel north to former IS stronghold Mosul.
Ali Hassan, 30, a Baghdad resident said: “At least if the Pope visits, people will see our country in a different light, not just bombs and war.”
Throngs of supporters welcome Pope