Boris Johnson’s £2.6m new briefing room at 9 Downing Street will be used for the first time for a televised prime ministerial press conference on Monday, No 10 has announced.
The venue, controversially refitted as a high-tech TV studio at taxpayers’ expense, was originally intended for daily media briefings by the prime minister’s press secretary Allegra Stratton.
But there was no date revealed today for when the long-delayed briefings will begin, with Ms Stratton saying only that it will be dependent on the progress of the roadmap out of lockdown, which is due to see most social distancing restrictions removed on 21 June at the earliest.
Mr Johnson’s appearance on 29 March will mark the latest step in the relaxation of lockdown restrictions in England, with groups of up to six people or two households of any size allowed to meet outside, including in private gardens.
It will mean an end to the frequent press conferences behind wooden lecterns in 10 Downing Street itself which have become a familiar feature of the last year as ministers and scientists provide updates on the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis.
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Future press conferences will take place in the new briefing room, draped in blue and with two Union Jacks flying behind the podium.
The new venue was converted from a disused Privy Council courtroom once used to hear appeals on legal cases from Commonwealth countries.
Daily media briefings were the brainchild of Mr Johnson’s former top adviser Dominic Cummings, who wanted a setting modelled on the White House briefing room to allow the PM’s spokesperson to bypass Westminster’s lobby reporters and speak directly to voters via TV.
Former Newsnight and ITV journalist Ms Stratton was recruited to be the TV face of No 10.
However, the idea appears to have fallen out of favour since Mr Cummings’ departure from No 10 in November, with the date for her first appearance for a live televised grilling repeatedly put back.
