Downing Street Party - Now The Spin

After a video was leaked to ITV News, showing now former press secretary Allegra Stratton joking about That Party, and freely admitting that whatever went on was not socially distanced, although she did try to pretend it was only a “cheese and wine” gathering, it became clear that alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his coterie of ineptitude was in yet more trouble over its own rulebreaking.

Because this could involve both of them

The inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker were in no doubt as to the seriousness of this latest development. Under the headline “A SICK JOKE”, readers are told “DOWNING Street was in crisis last night after a video emerged of officials joking about a lockdown-busting party they insist never happened … The footage was filmed last December 22 - four days after the alleged ‘boozy’ party and when London was [in] Tier 3”.

Lead story in the Mail ...

But not every paper put the story on its front page, leading Sky News veteran Adam Boulton to muse “Are the news organisations going light on #Partygate related to the hacks who were there?” Both the Murdoch Sun, and the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, avoided any front page mention of the story. At all.

... but not a word from the Tel ...

Why so? Speculation is now mounting that staff from both the Murdoch and Barclay press were at the gathering, and also from at least one broadcaster. Hence the spin, so much spin, in fact, that the story has been spun right off two front pages. Meanwhile, one broadcast stalwart has had one of those playing-it-down suspicion-raising moments.

... or, indeed, the Currant Bun

While Christopher “No” Hope of the Tel declared the appearance of the leaked video to be a “Game changer from [Tom Bradby]”, what he didn’t say was whether he, or anyone else from his paper, was at the gathering. Nor did the odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, now continuing his pretence to be a real journalist at the Sun.

Although he did manage “Crucial question .. have cabinet been pulled off broadcast or are they refusing this morning? One looks bad, one would be v bad sign for No10 … Still not govt out .. but Tory education committee boss Robert Halfon calls for an apology ‘from those doing the video’ for ‘insensitivity’. Says he takes the PM at his word that no rules were broken ‘until proved otherwise.’ Lukewarm”. But was he there?

And after yesterday’s update from I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here featured Ant and Dec saying a very pointed hello to Bozo, Laura Kuenssberg, tipped to succeed Andrew Marr as host of the BBC’s flagship Sunday morning politics show, opined “Millions of TV viewers hearing about misadventures in Downing Street without even watching the news”. Not “lawbreaking”, just “misadventures”. Was she there, too?

It matters if all or any of them attended the not-socially-distanced-but-only-a-cheese-and-wine-gathering-honestly. Because it will inevitably influence their coverage of that event, and indeed any other event that occurs under Bozo’s leadership. And it will demonstrate to the world just how incestuous the media relationship with this Government has become.

The lobby still doesn’t get how serious this is. So no change there, then.

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