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OpinionCommentDowning Street has been accused of acting like Donald Trump

Tuesday, 4th February 2020, 8:21 am

Up until the general election, Dominic Cummings, the Prime Ministers de facto chief of staff, and his director of communications Lee Cain were too distracted to do much about it.

But having secured an 80-seat majority, the pair have all but declared war on the parliamentary lobby journalists in a bid to exercise their new-found strength.

i's opinion newsletter: talking points from today

Out of favour

First was a change to the lobby briefing system - the twice daily meetings where journalists can fire questions at the Prime Minister's official spokesman.

Cain insisted that all meetings would be held in Downing Street rather than the Commons. This raised concerns that it would give No 10 the power to refuse entry for any journalists who had fallen out of favour.

No 10 has repeated the move, attempting to freeze out several journalists from a Downing Street briefing with the Governments lead Brexit negotiator David Frost, only this time it prompted a walkout.

Rather than subject himself to regular interviews with political correspondents, Mr Johnson has preferred the tightly managed Peoples PMQs held on Facebook.

'Trumpian'

It is a power play by Cummings and Cain who prioritise message discipline above all else and who view the favoured outlets as being essential to getting their message out. The move has been described as Trumpian by opposition MPs, due to its similarity to how the US President excludes certain reporters he does not like.

It would be easy to dismiss this as sour grapes at not being one of the chosen few titles, but it is a worrying sign of things to come.

Shutting out certain publications damages the bedrock of a free media which exists to help hold the Government to account.

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