2 2GM Friday August 28 2020 | the times
News
Sky News and the BBC News channel
may not carry Downing Street’s new
televised press conference in full every
day, it has emerged.
Britain’s two leading rolling news
channels plan to screen the White
House-style briefings “on merit” and
may cut away if they are insufficiently
newsworthy.
No 10 is replacing the off-camera
afternoon lobby briefings for journal-
ists with broadcast daily question-and-
answer sessions in an attempt to com-
municate directly with the public.
The briefings, due to start in October
from a room in 9 Downing Street, are
modelled on media conferences held by
the White House press secretary which
have been televised since 1985.
The Conservatives are recruiting a
spokesman to be paid £100,000 a year
to front the briefings and are expected
imminently to announce the appoint-
ment of an experienced broadcaster.
The spokesman will “represent the
government and the prime minister to
an audience of millions on a daily basis,
across the main broadcast channels”,
the job advert stated.
However, broadcasters are nervousNo 10’s hopes for daily TV
slot dashed by channels
Matthew Moore Media Correspondent about any perception that they are giv-
ing excessive airtime to government
spin and have not committed to screen-
ing all the conferences in their entirety
— setting up a potential row with No 10.
Kay Burley, the anchor at Sky News,
described the planned briefings as “all
very American”.
“Of course at Sky News we’ve got
24/7 air to fill, so we will cover those on
merit,” she told the Edinburgh TV Fes-
tival yesterday. “But we are not saying
that we will automatically carry that
news conference every day, at 4pm or
11am or wherever that might be.”
She added: “It’s a two-way street. If
they want to have that broadcast they
need broadcasters to be on board.”
The BBC News channel plans to take
the same on-merit approach to screen-
ing the briefings once they get under
way, The Times understands.
Millions of people tuned in for the
daily government briefings at the
height of the coronavirus pandemic but
ratings tailed off amid complaints from
viewers and journalists that the ses-
sions elicited little new information.
No 10 will hold a daily off-camera
lobby briefing for journalists in the
morning, in addition to the televised
question-and-answer sessions.Shake-up of
housing faces
legal challenge
Jonathan Ames Legal EditorMinisters acted unlawfully when
“rushing through” measures to stop
councils blocking housing develop-
ments, campaigners have claimed.
The group Rights: Community:
Action said that the plans announced
this month would have “a phenomenal-
ly negative impact on the people and
environment of towns and cities across
England”.
It is seeking a judicial review, alleging
a breach of equality law and that failure
to hold an environmental assessment
of part of the reforms broke EU rules.
The shake-up of planning laws will
effectively remove local control over
the rate of housebuilding and aims to
speed up the process. It will require
councils to designate enough land to
meet targets “distributed” centrally.
Naomi Luhde-Thompson, from
Rights: Community: Action, said that
the “prime minister admits that these
are the biggest planning reforms since
the Second World War, yet they’re
being rushed through with scant regard
for previous consultation in a period
which excludes the input of MPs”.Downing Street has been warned that
Boris Johnson has less than two weeks
to save post-Brexit trade and security
talks, according to senior European
Union sources.
Michel Barnier and David Frost, the
UK’s chief negotiator, will hold emer-
gency talks next week in an effort to
save the negotiations, The Times under-
stands.
Mr Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator,
told the government last week that ne-
gotiations will not move forward until
Mr Frost explains what Britain’s future
policy will be on industrial subsidies.
In an angry response, the prime min-
ister’s negotiator hit back, telling the
French former European commission-
er that Britain would not draw up such
a key economic policy on a “timetable
dictated to” by the EU.
Unless there is a breakthrough dur-
ing the eighth round of talks in London,
beginning on September 7, there is a
growing risk that negotiations will col-
lapse by the end of next month.
“It is hard to see how we get out of this
hole,” said a senior EU source close to
the talks. “Pessimism is now dominant.Two weeks to save Brexit
deal, Downing Street told
Bruno Waterfield Brussels Unless Frost unblocks this it is hard to
see how a deal can be saved. We really
are on the brink this time.”
Mr Barnier has refused to move for-
ward until the government reveals its
hand on the future of British state aid
and competition policy.
“Another month has passed without
any meaningful progress. The EU is not
gambling and has no incentive to do so,”
said David McAllister, a senior German
MEP who is close to Angela Merkel and
who chairs the European parliament’s
Brexit committee. “This is not a techno-
cratic position, but the expression of
the determination to preserve EU stan-
dards and achievements for the sake
and wellbeing of EU citizens.”
He added that the “UK’s interest in
subsidising sectors”, such as steel and
cars, would have “direct consequences
for EU industries and jobs if these
goods have ‘duty-free, quota-free’
access to the single market”.
“This is particularly true in light of
the Covid-19 situation,” he said.
Nathalie Loiseau, a French MEP and
the country’s former Europe minister,
warned that the EU assembly “will
never approve any agreement failing to
protect the functioning of the singlemarket”. “There is little time left and a
real risk that last-minute initiatives fail
the test,” she said.
A government spokesman said:
“After the transition period the UK will
have its own regime of subsidy control
and will not be subject to the EU’s state
aid regime. The government will set out
further detail of our domestic regime in
due course.”
Brussels negotiators are baffled by
the wrangling because European gov-
ernments are united on future British
subsidies whereas fishing, another
stumbling block, is only a big issue for
eight countries.
“The EU is totally united on state aid.
Totally,” said a European negotiator.
For the first time since the coronavi-
rus pandemic, both EU and British offi-
cials are now discussing the realistic
prospect of negotiations ending in fail-
ure. If the Brexit transition period ends
this year with a no-deal outcome there
is likely to be a serious breakdown and
poisoning of relations.
Disruption would include delays or
queues at ports and airports, tariffs on
goods for the first time in almost 50
years and a collapse in security co-op-
eration.from home, some come in sometimes,
some are full time. What matters to me
is that they deliver and, frankly, they’ve
been delivering at an unbelievable rate.
“I mean, you know, there’s some-
times this caricature that people who
work in the Civil Service work a 9 to 5
day, it’s just completely untrue in my
experience.”
Downing Street has repeatedly re-
fused to publish how many civil servants
are back at work. Some cabinet minis-
ters have privately complained that
their departments are deserted.
Ministers are pushing for occupancy
levels in the Cabinet Office and the
Treasury to rise to 30 per cent byNEWS
October but there is little expectation
that there will be a full return to work
this year.
Mr Johnson, however, is understood
to be determined to get them back to
work. Responding to the apparent con-
fusion between the prime minister and
health secretary’s messages, Sir Iain
Duncan Smith, a Tory MP and former
party leader, said: “The government
must have a clear and simple message
that civil servants should show the way
and get back to work.
“They’ve got to stop mixing that
message. The reality is that small
businesses that provide the vast majority
of jobs in the UK rely on people in city
centres being back in their offices.
“If they do not go back many of those
businesses will collapse, which will leadto higher unemployment and in turn
impact on people’s mental and physical
health.”
Sir Graham Brady, the head of the
1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers,
said: “Of course there are some
businesses which find their staff are just
as productive working from home.
What is essential is that the govern-
ment gives a clear and consistent
message that it is perfectly safe for
people to return to town.
“They should not be worried about
infections as a result of travelling on
trains and buses. We can all see the
devastating consequences for many
businesses when a huge proportion of
the customers on whom they depend
aren’t coming into our towns and cities.”continued from page 1
Back to work demandCoronavirus reports, pages 8-Pledge by new
Lib Dem leader
Sir Ed Davey told the
Liberal Democrats
they needed to “wake
up and smell the
coffee” after he was
elected leader, beating
Layla Moran. He
vowed to quickly
regain public trust in
the party. Page 6
Civil disorder
‘boosts Trump’
President Trump’s most
senior aide, Kellyanne
Conway, said that it
was “better” for his
re-election hopes to
have more disorder on
US streets, hours before
he was to give a speech
with law and order as
its centrepiece. Page 32FOSSIL FIND
A titanosaur embryo
gives vital clues
about the species
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A lack of interaction and post-work socialising
may draw people back to their offices
IAIN MARTIN, PAGE 29TIMES
THE BIG FILM
Tenet, starring John
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KEVIN MAHER, PAGE 7SPORT
POSITIVE TEST
Paul Pogba, of
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PA G E 7 2Hut Group chief
ready to cash in
Matt Moulding, 48,
founder of The Hut
Group, will collect
about £19.4 million a
year in rent from the
company after striking
a deal to become its
landlord before a
flotation valuing it at
£4.5 billion. Page 378.35am Grant Shapps, the transport secretary
12.45pm Countdown’s Susie Dent discusses Alexa
and regional accents
3pm The author and journalist Hunter Davies
reveals his food loves in Desert Island Crisps
4.30pm The British former Olympic boxer Nicola
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9.30pm Vanessa Branson on her memoir
One Hundred Summers: A Family Story