What is going on between Boris Johnson and the Westminster press pack?

The government is at war with the journalists of the parliamentary lobby, again. My colleagues at Westminster are up in arms over a change to the regular briefings held by the prime minister’s official spokesperson – so what is going on?

The government has announced that, from tomorrow, James Slack, Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson, will hold his briefings in Downing Street instead of the House of Commons.

This doesn’t seem like a big deal, as it means journalists will have to take an extra 10 minutes to go across the road. But it is seen as part of the low-level friction between Johnson’s media operation and political journalists since his Conservative leadership campaign.

So far, Johnson is boycotting Channel 4 News (after Dorothy Byrne, its head of news, called him a “known liar”) and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme; and Daily Mirror journalists were denied a place on his election battle bus.

The speculation is that the latest change is an attempt by the prime minister to assert greater control and to restrict access to his spokesperson.

Lee Cain, Johnson’s head of communications, might protest that morning briefings – the first of two daily briefings on days when parliament is sitting – used to be in Downing Street in the Blair years. So they did, but the afternoon briefing was always in the Commons, supplemented by semi-formal briefings known as “huddles” in the room immediately behind the press gallery after important prime ministerial statements.

The reason these briefings happen is that they benefit both sides. Mostly, they are practical, factual and quick: when the prime minister will be meeting so-and-so, what he meant by such-and-such, who will be announcing what.

Contrary to the common myth about the lobby as a secretive club of tame government-approved journalists, lobby passes, giving journalists access to the Commons, including the members’ lobby (hence the term), are issued by the House of Commons, not the government.

Any attempt by No 10 to assert itself is likely to be resisted and to lead to a scratchier relationship with journalists. This seems worse than pointless from the government’s point of view: it can only be counterproductive.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator