Whodunnit at the heart of Downing Street is another headache for PM
Mystery around leaker’s identity raises worrying questions about loyalty of Boris Johnson’s No 10 team
THE video of Allegra Stratton laughing awkwardly at a rehearsal in Downing Street’s new press briefing room when asked about a Christmas party that Boris Johnson had insisted never happened has caused the Government acute embarrassment.
But how the video has ended up in the public domain is also deeply worrying for a Prime Minister seemingly lurching from one crisis to the next.
Just months after footage of Matt Hancock engaging in non-socially distanced relations with his close aide was leaked to The Sun, forcing the health secretary’s resignation, along comes the video of Ms Stratton joking that she “went home” when asked by a Downing Street special adviser about the possible existence of a Christmas Party.
The rehearsal, recorded on Dec 18, was circulated the next day to nine individuals who worked in Downing Street and were asked to scrutinise Ms Stratton’s front-of-camera performance. Those nine people could then have forwarded the email with the footage attached to any number of colleagues.
The circle is wide, but worse than that for the Prime Minister, it now raises questions over loyalty.
At the time that Ms Stratton was giggling about whether a “cheese and wine” party would have been lawful, Downing Street was in the throes of crisis, Dominic Cummings having quit as Mr Johnson’s chief adviser a little over a month before, along with Lee Cain, his director of communications.
Out of power, Mr Cummings has become a thorn in Mr Johnson’s side but at that time, he retained a number of loyal allies within Number 10.
The whodunnit plot over the Stratton video leak could not be thicker.
The leaker of the video – many will consider him or her a heroic whistleblower – may come from a circle of Downing Street advisers or else the various television and industry technicians, from contracted and subcontracted firms, who were working with Ms Stratton in a desperate attempt to get her “match fit” in time for the press conference to go live.
According to insiders, Ms Stratton went through about eight or nine halfhour rehearsals over the ensuing weeks. None of them went well, it’s fair to say, and the plan for daily recorded briefings – similar to those conducted at the White House – was scrapped. But it raises the prospect of several hours’ more footage of Ms Stratton that could be drip fed into the public domain.
“That tape [discussing the Christmas party] was only the second of Allegra’s rehearsals. Several more followed,” said a source with knowledge of the process.
“The footage was sent by email only to Downing Street employees. It ran for about 30 minutes. The plan was for her to undertake these press briefings once or twice a week for 30 minutes.
“In the end she did eight or nine rehearsals before the idea was scrapped. The footage was circulated to the events and communications team, who would distribute it to more senior people including the director of communications at the time, who was James Slack.”
Mr Slack has since quit and joined The Sun as deputy editor.
Intriguingly, the Stratton footage was not passed to a tabloid, which can pay big money for such dynamite, but was sent instead to ITN, whose report was presented by Paul Brand, the UK editor of ITV News.
Eyebrows were raised at the choice of journalist since Mr Brand had achieved another scoop back in March when he obtained the first still photographs from inside the new briefing room at 9 Downing Street, which had been refurbished at a cost to the taxpayer of £2.6million. Also laying claim to that scoop was Nathan Lee, a young producer at ITV News who had graduated with a journalism degree in 2017.
Pinned proudly to Mr Lee’s Twitter feed is: “EXCLUSIVE: @itvnews can reveal the new *£2.6m* Downing Street studio for new White House style press briefings.” On the ITV News website, it is Mr Lee who wrote the news story published on March 15.
After university Mr Lee went to work as a senior video journalist at Made Television Ltd, where the channel manager and later network head of editorial was Chris James. Mr James, a one-time news reader and reporter, was from December to February working inside Downing Street trying to make sure the Stratton project would run smoothly.
Mr James was brought in for his “technical expertise”.
He has posted photographs of himself on his Instagram account proudly at the door of Number 10.
Suspicions have fallen on Mr James as the possible whistleblower and source of Mr Lee’s exclusive in March, although his present employer said that was a “daft” suggestion. Mr James could not be reached for comment. A separate source said the world of television production was “tight knit” and everybody had connections.
A source said the still photographs of the inside of the room passed to ITV News matched exactly “pixel to pixel” images found on a server or USB stick of a company involved in advising Downing Street on the press briefings.
But the source said the wide circulation of videos meant the mole could easily come from within Downing Street.
What’s more, said one source, the leak is to be applauded, the public interest outweighing any concerns about Downing Street confidentiality.