Is Downing Street planning to sue for a story suggesting that Boris Johnson has ‘buyers’ remorse’ over his marriage? That’s the question asked at today’s lobby meeting after the New European ran a story alleging that the Prime Minister had said this at a Telegraph leader writers’ reunion at the Garrick Club.
The original story met with an on the record denial from the press office — stating that Johnson ‘did not make this remark and the allegation is untrue and defamatory’. This denial did not appear in the story, to Downing Street’s fury.
The New European’s editor-in-chief Matt Kelly claims that behind the scenes, No. 10 went further. He alleges he received a late-night phone call and a subsequent text from a man thought to be Downing Street’s director of communications in which he was told Johnson planned to sue.
Only when the New European went public — publishing an article saying Johnson would sue them (but they stood by the story) — did Downing Street start to hum a different tune. Under questioning today at the lobby briefing, they denied there were any plans to take legal action.
So, what’s going on? Is Kelly (now in his second public statement) misrepresenting the contents of that phone call? Did the Prime Minister get cold feet overnight about taking to the witness stand? Or (more likely) did No. 10 never plan to sue — but tell the New European (and others) that it was considering legal action to stop a tricky story spreading?
Whatever the case, the handling of this story over the past 24 hours has served to take a publication with 20,000 readers national. It’s not the first time the long-suffering staff of Downing Street have inadvertently fallen victim to the so-called ‘Streisand effect’ by overreacting to minor stories and, in so doing, greatly increasing awareness of them.
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