A "WHITE House-style press conference" room in Downing Street which cost the taxpayer £2.6 million has been scrapped by the Government just one month after its first use.

The room, dubbed a "vanity project" by critics, was meant to be used for daily press conferences led by the Prime Minister's press secretary Allegra Stratton in front of a packed room of journalists.

However, The Times has reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now decided to axe plans for these televised daily briefings, with the studio now to only be used for ministerial press conferences.

 

The daily conferences were said to be inspired by the daily briefings that take place in the White House, but plans for these are now on the scrapheap.

The refurbishment of the room, which included lighting rigs, cameras, and a big blue backdrop adorned with two Union flags, was revealed in March to have cost £2.6 million, including more than £33,000 on 'broadband equipment'.

Labour slammed the room, branding it a "vanity project", and deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Boris Johnson is clearly running scared of scrutiny and questions about Tory sleaze and dodgy lobbying.

“Instead of wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on a pointless vanity project the Prime Minister should have used the money to give our NHS heroes a pay rise.”

Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy added: "£2.6m wasted on a briefing room for a press secretary who will never use it.

"In a country where record numbers are using food banks, this is truly the most reckless, wasteful and self-interested government I’ve ever witnessed."

John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Without an urgent explanation, taxpayers will be furious that their funds were wasted on the government’s high-priced spin suite.”

Actor Chris Addison, best known for playing the useless civil servant Ollie Reeder in political satire The Thick of It, also lampooned the decision, tweeting: "Is there anything that illustrates his entitled adolescent posho persona better than demanding a £2.6m briefing room, only to get bored with it two weeks later."

The room was first used in March when Mr Johnson addressed the public regarding lockdown easing, and was used during yesterday's Covid briefing led by the Prime Minister.

According to one Government official who spoke to Politico, there was broad agreement in Government the daily briefings were a "bad idea" from a previous regime, and "no good could come" from briefings which could create negative clips which then lead news bulletins and spread on social media on bad days for the Government.

The televised briefings had been due to begin in the autumn, but now will not go ahead.