Downing Street scraps televised briefings after spending £2.6m on briefing room

The £2.6 million tax payer funded press briefing room will no longer be used for televised government press conferences

The room, which is located in Number 9, will now instead be used by the prime minister and members of the cabinet for meetings. It was renovated in an attempt by the government to emulate White House style press briefings in the United States, and the briefings were set to be led by Boris Johnson's new spokeswoman, Allegra Stratton. Stratton, who was hired on a £125,000 per year salary for the role, is now set to become the spokeswoman for the prime minister at the climate change COP26 summit. Before moving to work for the prime minister, she worked for chancellor Rishi Sunak as director of strategic communications. The room was has only been used a handful of times since the government moved their press briefings to the renovated space, and was used for the first time in briefing less than a month ago. Labour have condemned the government's behaviour on the matter, with deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner describing the renovation of the room as "a pointless vanity project." Plans for the room were the brainchild of Johnson's former director of communications Lee Cain who resigned alongside Dominic Cummings last year.