Journalists condemn surprise shake-up of No 10 lobby briefings

"No 10 normally holds two briefings on most days that parliament sits to allow the lobby political journalists that cover Westminster to question the prime minister's official spokesperson. But in an email on Thursday, Tim Allan, Downing Street's executive director of communications, said there would be no afternoon briefings from next month. He said No 10 would instead hold occasional afternoon press conferences with ministers, as well as technical briefings with officials."

"We are greatly concerned by this step and furious that the lobby was not consulted about this move which restricts access and, we fear, scrutiny. Downing Street has promised more ministerial press conferences but they will obviously control the timetable for those and will no doubt seek to choose who they take questions from. None of this bodes well for transparency from a government which came into office promising to raise standards."

No 10 normally holds two briefings on most days that parliament sits to allow lobby political journalists covering Westminster to question the prime minister's official spokesperson. Downing Street will stop afternoon lobby briefings from next month and will instead hold occasional afternoon press conferences with ministers plus technical briefings with officials. The morning lobby briefing will continue but may sometimes be replaced by a press conference with ministers, or possibly Keir Starmer, the prime minister, setting out the main government announcements of the day. Those press conferences will be open to specialist journalists and social media content creators. Lobby briefings are on the record but not broadcast and allow journalists to ask unlimited questions on any topic, while government press conferences typically limit the number of questions and select who asks them. The lobby chairs and the organisation representing lobby journalists criticised the change as restricting access and scrutiny and said they were not consulted. Tim Allan said the media landscape had been utterly transformed, leaving the current arrangements not fit for purpose.

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