The Telegraph
Boris Johnson’s plans to hold White House-style press briefings have been abandoned, despite the Government spending £2.6million on a new Downing Street conference facility. In another major No 10 upheaval, it was confirmed on Tuesday that the Prime Minister had decided to axe the daily televised press conferences. The No 9 briefing room, which has only recently been renovated, will now be used by the Prime Minister, ministers and officials to hold press conferences. Allegra Stratton, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, will now become his spokesman for the COP26 United Nations climate summit, which is taking place in November. She will move across the road to work in No 9, where Mr Sharma and the Government’s COP26 team are based. On Tuesday night Ms Stratton, a former broadcast journalist who previously worked for Chancellor Rishi Sunak, said she was “delighted” to be taking on the new role, adding that it was a “unique opportunity to deliver a cleaner, greener world". “I’m looking forward to working with the Prime Minister and Alok Sharma [the UK’s COP26 President] to ensure it is a success,” she said. But others suggested Ms Stratton, pictured below, had effectively been sidelined.
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