The news Boris doesn't want you to read
The Prime Minister’s office removed articles exposing how Boris Johnson when Foreign Sectatory allegedly tried to hire his then mistress, Carrie Symonds, on a £100k Governmental job. The article was initially published in the first edition of the Times newspaper and the online editions of both the Times and MailOnline before disappearing.
That’s right, the UK government removed published articles from the British press because they were embarrassing to the Prime Minister.
It is the prerogative of a newspaper to publish what they want within the law. What is concerning is the removal of these articles seem to have been at the behest of the Government. If this is the case it is a dangerous precedent of State infringement of our free press.
The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday 20th June, that Downing Street confirmed it contacted the Times on Friday night and asked it to retract the story. The Guardian write that the decision to remove the story was made by the acting Editor, Tony Gallagher with suggestions that News UK CEO, Rebekah Brooks was also involved.
The Times and Mailonline had legitimate reasons to report the story. Legitimate as these allegations were first raised in the Lord Ashcroft book: First Lady, which to my knowledge the book itself and Daily Mail serialised extract have not been disputed. Furthermore, on Monday 20th the BBC checked with two sources who confirmed the allegations.
There hasn't been too much coverage of the story, and publications have gone very quiet on reporting the scandals in Downing Street.
One veteran journalist, Tim Walker notes; “On #Carriegate and so many other stories, I talk to old colleagues. Always despair in their voices. The tragedy of our journalism right now is that a great story about the prime minister by its very nature unlikely to be used by our major media organisations”.
I’ve spoken to a number of reporters who tell me they are just not allowed to publish exposures on the corruption of Carrie and Boris Johnson. As one senior Westminster journalist told me in March, his paper has gone into “full-blown propaganda mode”.
The key thing is that it is not the journalist themselves, they are doing their jobs, they have got the stories, checked the sources and even written the copy. It’s not really the Editors either, but it seems when the reporter fact-checks and asks for a statement from Downing Street, the Editors receive phone calls from their respective executives and the stories are killed.
So what is it which is killing the stories? It’s not the lack of public interest, for starters exposing all the scandals related to the Prime Minister and his wife should be the public duty of any news organisation.
On Monday 20th June, the news was the most read item on both BBC and the Guardian websites, two of the very few outlets to cover the story.
The disappearance does not seem to do with the then Foreign Secretary (now Prime Minister, don’t forget), allegedly tried to hire the women he was having a affair with (Carrie) as the Chief of Staff at the Foreign Office. It should be noted, that it was alleged around this time Carrie was let go at Conservative HQ for ‘poor work’ and improper expenses into the thousands.
According to this week's Privet Eye, the real reason the story was pulled was actually on the reports Boris’ staff knew he was having an affair with Carrie, after a backbencher walked into Boris's parliamentary office to find Carrie performing an sexual act on the then Foreign Secretary. Again, not a new alligation and is in Lord Ashcroft’s book.
As a member of the Conservative Party and as a subscriber to the Times, I’m deeply worried about what seems to me to be the suppression of a legitimate story by the Government, and as such, an attack on the right of a free press.
As George Orwell said: “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”. No truer words if those people are the Prime Minister and his wife.
