Johnson accused of using “Trump tactics” to avoid press scrutiny

Boris Johnson has been accused of using tactics similar to those employed by Donald Trump in an effort to avoid scrutiny from the press, after selected lobby journalists were excluded from a No 10 briefing today.

Only a limited list of lobby members – those journalists who have access to parliament – were allowed into a briefing at 10 Downing Street this afternoon, which excluded reporters from The Mirror, i, Huffington Post, PoliticsHome, Independent and other publications.

Those who were invited were “asked to stand on one side of a rug in the foyer of No 10, while those not allowed in were asked by security to stand on the other side,” according to The Guardian.

When the banned reporters were asked to leave the building, those who were going to be allowed into the briefing – including the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and ITV’s Robert Peston – decided instead to walk out in protest.

Commenting on the incident, Labour’s new Shadow Digital, Culture and Media Secretary Tracy Brabin said: “Press freedom is a cornerstone of our democracy and journalists must be able to hold the government to account.

“It is concerning that Boris Johnson seems to be resorting to tactics imported from Donald Trump to hide from scrutiny.

“The future trade agreement with the European Union is an issue of great public importance and interest. Those gaining access to such important information should not be cherry-picked by Number 10.”

The behaviour in 10 Downing Street has been compared to that of the US President because it has become common for the White House to exclude reporters regarded as hostile from certain events.

Several lobby journalists tweeted their accounts of the episode that took place today. PoliticsHome editor Kevin Schofield said: “We went through security, knocked on the door and were allowed in.

“Once inside, the invited journalists were asked to stand on one side of the room, while the rest of us were asked to leave. We all then all left in protest.”

The Mirror‘s Pippa Crerar said: “I felt deeply uncomfortable being left to stand on one side of the room while colleagues’ names were read out one-by-one and they joined the group who were deemed “acceptable” by No 10. Sinister and sad.”

Paul Waugh wrote: “After he was challenged again to give reasons, Cain [Director of Communications] lost his temper as the entire group said that they were walking out as one and would not agree to a briefing on such divisive terms.”

No 10 sources briefed Buzzfeed‘s Alex Wickham, who used to work at Guido Fawkes, about the existence of an ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ lobby. But other journalists have responded to say that there is “no such thing”, that “these are lies” and “this is untrue”.

The briefing, apparently for “specialist” journalists only, was set to be given by government officials – namely the Prime Minister’s Brexit adviser David Frost – who are supposed to be neutral, not political.

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet commented: “As ministers are now regularly refusing to be accountable for their actions by boycotting certain programmes and journalists, this represents another very dangerous step.

It has also been reported that key adviser Dominic Cummings has a “network of spies” to check whether aides and ministers have fraternised with the press. Stanistreet said: “Johnson’s government must stop this paranoia and engage with all the press, not just their favourites.”