Meet the new public face of the pandemic
A FORMER BBC journalist who has been advising Rishi Sunak is set to be the face of the Government at new daily televised press briefings.
Allegra Stratton is expected within weeks to leave her role as director of communications at the Treasury to start her new £100,000-a-year role. The news emerged on the same day that the Prime Minister was expected to host a press conference to announce a threetier structure for local lockdowns.
Ministers will appear alongside Ms Stratton when the daily briefings, from a new studio at 9 Downing Street, begin next month. Ms Stratton will report directly to Lee Cain, No 10’s director of communications and Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser.
She will work alongside Jack Doyle, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, and James Slack, his official spokesman.
Lobby briefings, as they are known in Westminster, have been taking place behind closed doors but reforms will see one of the two daily conferences broadcast on national television.
Her post will be political rather than drawn from the civil service, so she will be able to engage on Opposition party policies, which a neutral Whitehall official would have to sidestep.
In response, Sir Keir Starmer plans to hold his own regular press conferences.
A former Guardian journalist, Ms Stratton was an ITV News editor, BBC Newsnight political editor and co-presenter on ITV’S Peston On Sunday.
It was mooted that Riz Lateef, a BBC London news presenter, was Mr Johnson’s favourite for the role, but despite being “flattered” she declined the offer.
A No 10 source said Ms Stratton’s posting had not yet been confirmed. She was unavailable for comment.