Downing Street briefing room has £80,000 ‘politically neutral’ refurbishment
The UK Government has spent up to £80,000 to make Downing Street’s press briefing room a “politically neutral setting”.
The briefing room, in Number 9 Downing Street, was refurbished during December.
The blue panels which had formed the backdrop to the press conference stage have been replaced with wood panels with inlaid lighting.
But in a sign the works are not yet complete, a rough wooden batten remained screwed to the central panel.
The blue panels which surrounded the TV screen on the stage have been replaced by grey ones while the blue carpet lining the stage has been swapped for one in various shades of grey.
The refurbishment is understood to have cost less than £80,000 and has largely replaced the blue panels with wooden ones.
‘Refresh’
Asked about the refurbishment, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “A one-off refresh of the Number 9 media briefing room took place to restore the room to a politically neutral setting.
“The panelling restores the room back to its original state. As you will be aware the cost is obviously a fraction of what the previous administration spent on the room.”
Under Boris Johnson, the previous government spent £2.6 million converting the space into a TV briefing room that opened in 2021, a move Labour at the time labelled a “vanity project”.
The government had planned to hold White House-style press briefings in the room on camera, but scrapped the idea.
Lobby briefings
The room has since been used to host press conferences as well as the daily lobby briefing for journalists.
The exact figure spent by the current Government on refurbishing the room is expected to be published in due course.
The official spokesman added: “At the Budget we made a commitment to make £80 million savings across Government communications. The costs for the refresh will be set out in the usual transparency returns.”
The room previously served as the courtroom for the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council before it moved to the Supreme Court building in 2009.
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Politically neutered…
Just what I thought when I read the headline. WhoTF sits on his/her backside all day dreaming up schemes for “refreshing” a pit that’s rotten top to bottom?.
And behind a neon sign that displays today’s ‘Generous Donor’…
Neutral – yeah that just about sums up this flavourless bunch of principle-light centrist non-entities (with just a very few exceptions).
Still… they’re not the tories (if you look very closely) so that’s a relief?
What a waste of money. And they wonder why people are disenchanted from the mainstream parties.
£80,000 is nothing in the grand scheme of things and represents a miniscule portion of the government’s overall budget. At least this government (unlike the government of Bojo the Clown) isn’t wasting government money draping our public buildings with the butcher’s apron.
“£80,000 is nothing in the grand scheme of things…” That’s the default remark from people who just love pi**ing public funds down the drain. Johnson’s deviance is no excuse for engaging in less deviant but still wasteful activity. No doubt there is more to come so you’ll get plenty of chances to roll out that trite justification.
Lets face it, they had to do this. I bet the cons were giggling when they signed off on the original revamp knowing at some point Labour would have the blue in the background. Neutral a good choice.
There are bigger issues in politics, but 80k to change some panels?!
Politically neutral costing £80,000, lol? Well I never. Still has those repulsive looking Union flags though. #WelshNot 🇬🇧 👎 #Cymru 🏴 ✊
While we have the highest homeless rate in the Developed World!