"The Cabinet Office minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, thought he had all bases covered. He had skipped off early down to his south Wales constituency of Torfaen. Surely that should put him out of harm's way. No such luck. Just after 10pm, Nick got the summons from No 10. I'm afraid you're it."
"Nick looked down at his notes. Such as they were. All he had written was: Say the prime minister has apologised. Then say it again. Um The prime minister has taken full responsibility, has said it was a mistake to appoint Mandelson and he has apologised to the victims. Would that do?"
"He didn't have anything else to say, because he hadn't been involved in the process, so he was as clueless as everyone else about why the prime minister had screwed up quite so badly. No. It wouldn't do. We need an explanation, said Barnett. So Thomas-Symonds started winging it, making up excuses as he went along."
Senior government ministers avoided media duty on Wednesday night regarding Peter Mandelson's appointment. Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds attempted to escape by leaving for his Welsh constituency, but was summoned back to London by Downing Street after 10pm. Despite poor wifi and travel difficulties, he was set up with a makeshift studio to conduct interviews. During an appearance on the Today programme with Emma Barnett, Thomas-Symonds struggled to provide meaningful answers, relying only on notes instructing him to repeat that the prime minister had apologized and taken responsibility. When pressed for explanation about the unusually rushed vetting procedure, he improvised excuses, admitting he had no involvement in the appointment process and lacked understanding of what had gone wrong.
#political-crisis-management #media-relations #government-accountability #peter-mandelson-appointment #cabinet-communications
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]