Allegra Stratton: Who’s the Prime Ministers new defendant in Chief
Moving the United Kingdom to a more Americanised lobby press relations between the government and the media. For the first time like America, Britain has had an someone to take one for the team so minsters and the prime minster doesn’t have to be in the firing line trying to spin what ever crisis or scandal the government has or hasn’t landed itself in. Some would struggle who’d want to defend a government who’s within a year of winning a landslide majority become so popular the answer is Allegra Stratton, recently been working on the spin and launch the Sunak brand. Popularity the prime minister yearns for in a sense as he’s glowing with envy not anti bodies that he recently claimed in lockdown.
Not even beginning her time in the spotlight answering questions from BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Sky News’s Beth Rigby and her old colleague at ITV when she co-hosted with him on Peston on Sunday. Maybe the prime minister wanted to choose someone that would hope the media would go soft on or soon warm up to an old lobby chum. Though, networks like Sky News said they wouldn’t broadcast such press conferences day in day out, on those slow news days these conferences may become a challenge for the government to sustain. Though hired on a six figure sum according from words in the Telegraph, the people will be the ones to decide whether it’s worth the tax payers money seeing Stratton not a cabinet minister doing the spin.
Stratton, has already shown to be a moving force to the change of direction as her choice to preferring to answer directly to the prime minister rather than any of his advisors made for soap opera headlines. The exit of Lee Cain and later Dominic Cummings due to it being an either or. Showing her determination to be a leading figure in the government communication and not wanting to answer to the vote leave faction who are somewhat responsible for the idea of the Washington style press conferences due to loathing of the questioning from journalists like Piers Morgan and Emily Maitlis.
In recent times times, the government has boycotted many flagship news programming, ITV’s Breakfast show ‘Good Morning Britain’ which saw the return of Cabinet health minister agreeing to an appearance after months of absence from government ministers. Not unusual from a the same government that had Prime Minister, Johnson scurrying away and pulling the curtains on appearing on national TV after bizarrely shutting an industrial fridge door on himself in a moment from the election campaign from last year. Other shows that the government have fleeted from shutting the door on appearing from include BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme and NewsNight a television show the government have remained sceptical of though was twice home to Stratton herself once working behind the scenes producing then returned to report on party politics then policy. Though some of her harsh questioning on a member of the public didn’t go unnoticed leading to public humiliation of interviewee when asked on benefit claims of a new mother without a home of her own though was living with family. Rightly so, there was many complaints filed after that controversial blunder.
University until marriage, Stratton portrayed as a centrist Blairite who unlike her peers defended the decision of the labour government then in the Iraq War on basis on humanitarian issues. This shows she was prepared to speak independently and for herself. Though come January she won’t be speaking for herself but a conservative government in times which will call for some difficult spin for a government which has Ben clueless on the matter.
After making unpopular decisions and with bumpy roads to come Stratton will have to speak to the nation on its government on its handling of the coronavirus, a turbulent economy, how it intends to work with the new Biden administration. She won’t be short of questions though maybe show news days to come. Her job will have to be presenting the renewed Johnsonism, a prime minister longing for his popularity when he was seen as s metropolitan liberal conservative mayor of London. It will be challenging to establish that popularity due to the shortcomings in the national crisis seen with the coronavirus pandemic.
Wife of a conservative journalist editor from the opinion magazine The Spectator though more of a Blairite in her youth. It’s a headache for Stratton dealing with a headache dealing with appeasing libertarian brexiters, to one nation conservatives to liberal conservatives seeing a squabbling government and a fractious parliament. This will make for a challenging game of spin for a press secretary who will face challenges from the governments recent salty relationship with the press. Her experience working with the chancellors brand that has lead do the chancellor seeing the highest polling from the current government ministers, her experience working in the media gives Johnson with some hope, with more choppy waters to come
