As a former court room, the No. 9 Downing Street briefing hub has seen its fair share of drama – and none more so than this past year. Some £2.9 million was lavished on turning the site into a state-of-the-art stage for press conferences, amid plans to televise government briefings with the parliamentary lobby. But all that changed in April when, following the departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain, the idea was scrapped, with Allegra Stratton moved from lobby briefings to the COP26 beat.
But what to do with the newly-restored press room, newly decked out in royal blue and Union Jacks aplenty? For the last six months the former Privy Council Office courtroom has hosted various intermittent pressers including Sajid Javid’s Covid briefings and Boris Johnson’s kids’ conference on climate change – ‘a rare chance to have some mature questions,’ as one No. 10 aide quipped to Mr S. Yet for the most part the room has sat empty and unloved, with only the odd Henry Hoover or two to fill its cavernous, wood pannelled confines.
One new use was discovered for the room last month however, after it was revealed that Boris Johnson had used the room to host a secret screening of the new James Bond flick No Time to Die. The
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