From the coronavirus strategy to the merits of Rule, Britannia!, the prime minister’s new spokesperson will have to deal with the full range of issues confronting the government.
As the selection process for the first incumbent reaches its closing stages, though, the successful candidate is likely to face a harder question still: why on earth would you want to do it?
With the closing date for applications passed and the Downing Street machine back to full gear with Boris Johnson’s director of communications, Lee Cain, returning to the office, it was reported on Sunday that the process of sifting through the CVs will now intensify.
And although the job answering the questions of the press on camera will command a salary of £100,000 a year and a place on every news broadcast, the clearest signals yet are about those who view the opportunity with caution.
According to reports in the Sunday Times, Johnson hoped to persuade the BBC’s Riz Lateef to take on the role, which will involve fronting a daily televised press conference.
“Riz Lateef was Boris’s first thought,” the paper quoted a Tory source as saying, in part because of his respect for the RTS award-winner’s role questioning him when he was mayor of London. While the paper said Lateef ruled herself out, it is understood that the approach has not reached the stage of an offer to accept or decline.
Sophy Ridge has also been named as a possible candidate. But it is understood she was reluctant to leave her position as Sky News’ lead political interviewer.
“It’ll be an enormously, possibly uniquely challenging role in government communications,” said Paul Harrison, who was Theresa May’s press secretary. “The scope of the role is vast, and the unexpected consequences of the pandemic make it particularly demanding.”
Craig Oliver, a former director of politics and communications for David Cameron, said the role would be akin to “being on a tightrope without a safety net every day. In the current system, because it’s not recorded, you can go back and forth, fudge things a bit, and that pantomime can run again and again – but that’s rather difficult when people are watching you on TV.
“When a crisis hits the government, and everyone has very specific questions on the record, if you slip or look like you’re playing games, that clip will be played endlessly.”
In those circumstances, the former BBC, ITV and Guardian journalist Allegra Stratton, now chancellor Rishi Sunak’s communications chief, has emerged as a frontrunner, with a rare combination of broadcast skills and time at the heart of government. It is understood Downing Street believes that a woman should hold the role, in part to counter the perception that Johnson’s administration is too male-dominated.
But Oliver suggests that on-air experience may not be the prerequisite many have suggested.
“They’ve been through the cycle of thinking it would be a broadcaster – it’s not a dealbreaker now. Much more important is someone who is fluently across the detail and makes the case and is willing to take bullets – you’re in the frontline and your job is to defend the government and put the government and the prime minister first.
“The last thing you want is someone who’s going to grandstand – you have to understand that actually this is a profoundly egoless task, and narcissists need not apply.”
Another former No 10 aide pointed out that whoever takes the job will be closing the door on a traditional journalistic career for good – and that unlike in the US, where lucrative pundit roles on CNN and Fox are on offer for former White House advisers, the next career steps for whoever does it are not obvious.
“You can become a pundit, but you don’t get that big-shot deal,” the former aide said. “Given the high turnover of staff in the current administration, you’re taking a risk. You potentially become more famous than a lot of cabinet ministers, but you leave yourself incredibly exposed. You only have to look at Sean Spicer” – Donald Trump’s notorious first press secretary, who found himself an object of ridicule for his misleading briefings and wound up on Dancing with the Stars in a neon green ruffled shirt.
Despite all those pitfalls, Oliver sees the logic to the government’s plan. “Someone on the record who is overtly political and able to say political things and promote the PM is very important to them,” he said. “A civil servant [as the current spokesperson is] is actually very limited in what they can say.”
And he notes that while “this is a risk for the government, it’s a risk for the media too. I think at the beginning of lockdown [when televised briefings became a daily norm], the lobby was quite surprised to find that the public doesn’t like the way it goes about its business. Are you actually interested in winkling out information, or do you want to trip someone up? So the feeling was, let’s put them in the spotlight too.”
For all the downsides, Harrison said, “working at the centre of government, at the centre of our national life, is a huge privilege. You’ll have days which are extremely difficult, challenges which sometimes seem insurmountable, but it’ll be the most interesting thing you ever do.”
