The axing of televised lobby briefings on Tuesday has meant a new role for Boris Johnson’s press secretary Allegra Stratton. Now recast as the government’s spokeswoman for the forthcoming COP26 summit in Glasgow, it will be her job to front communications both strategically and publicly in the lead up to the event in November. The climate change eco-jamboree is seen as Johnson’s moment on the world stage, with insiders suggesting it will be ‘bigger than the Olympics’ replete even with its own mascot.
But new figures seen by Steerpike suggests Stratton will have her work cut out in efforts to enthuse the public. Only one in five British adults have heard of COP26, according to a poll of 1,500 people by Redfield and Wilton, with 80 per cent remaining in the dark about the forthcoming conference which now even has its own minister in the unexciting form of Alok Sharma. With today of course being Earth Day – the annual eco-shindig to signal one’s support for environmental protection – Steerpike thought it would be useful to find out what the British people think of proposed efforts to save the planet.
Unsurprisingly the tactics of direct action mob Extinction Rebellion – whose window smashing efforts attracted yet more negative headlines this morning – find less favour with the British public.
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