Allegra Stratton: Number 10 communications team appoints own nemesis

When Allegra Stratton left the journalistic world to join Rishi Sunak’s team in April, there were raised eyebrows at Westminster. Not just because Sunak – a friend of her husband, Spectator political editor, James Forsyth – was the best man at her wedding. Stratton was a good journalist and it had been assumed that she would stay on that side of the divide between media and politics. The former ITV News correspondent brought serious media heft to the up-and-coming Chancellor’s communications operation. She had previously worked at the BBC, The Times, The Independent, The New Statesman, and The Guardian.

Stratton’s appointment also signalled that Sunak was serious about making it to the top. The months since have seen him develop a dominant personal brand, independent of both Boris Johnson and the wider Conservative party. The Chancellor’s cash-splashing announcements are previewed on his personal social media accounts, with personally-designed graphics, accompanied by his personal signature.

Stratton will now join Boris Johnson’s team as the new press secretary. She will become the face of the government, leading a daily press conference in a new media centre in Number 9 Downing Street. While Sky and BBC News have said they will not broadcast the conferences end-to-end, Stratton will regularly feature in the daily highlights. Her words will carry enormous weight, especially in the midst of a pandemic.

In many ways, Stratton has been unwittingly preparing for this role her entire career. Her knowledge of the inner workings broadcasting could allow her to delicately manipulate producers, just as Sir Oliver Craig, a former BBC News editor who served as David Cameron’s director of communications, was able to maximise the former Prime Minister’s coverage in the almost universally viewed Six and Ten O’clock News programmes.

Stratton’s personal relationships with former colleagues may also help with damage control – something which will, under the current leadership, inevitably take up a large proportion of her time. On Tuesday, she was believed to have played a role in ITV’s hastily-issued correction after the broadcaster tweeted that Rishi Sunak had advised artists and musicians to retrain and find new jobs.

“An earlier tweet about this story has been deleted and the article has changed to reflect that the Chancellor’s comments were about employment generally and not specifically the music or arts sector,” came ITV’s correction, minutes after the original tweet. Just enough time for a stern phone call from a certain former ITV editor, some speculated.

Stratton’s media network extends into the heart of the Westminster lobby. Her husband’s role at The Spectator make her a member of what Tatler has dubbed The Spectator Set. The group is characterised by links between the political magazine and senior members of the government. Boris Johnson is partly its creation. He is a former editor. Its current commissioning editor, Mary Wakefield, is married to Dominic Cummings.

Westminster is awash with speculation about how Forsyth and Stratton will manage their professional relationship – as political editor, he will inevitably be required to scrutinise and ask questions of Downing Street’s public face, who happens to be his wife. The couple weathered accusations of “chumocracy” when Stratton first joined Rishi Sunak’s team in April. Forsyth and Sunak are fellow Old Wykehamists. “He delivered one of the most touching best man’s speeches I’ve ever heard,” one guest said of Sunak, who at the time was an investment manager.

Even so, it would be unfair to describe Stratton as a creature of the Westminster bubble. She rose on her own talent. She appears to be one of the more down to earth people in Whitehall. A mother of two, Stratton wrote in 2018 about the struggles mothers face in competitive workplaces. “Eight months into the pregnancy, just before I went on maternity leave, my BBC editors made it clear I would have to fight for my position when I came back,” she wrote.

“After one particularly fraught meeting, I had my last antenatal appointment before my due date but the stress of the meeting had caused my baby’s heartbeat to rocket,” she added, concluding: “New mothers have a drive to get back to where they were. … If I was a boss, I’d want more new mothers on the staff – even if we do suffer the occasional meltdown.”

It is partially due to her unassuming disposition that Allegra Stratton has succeeded in the broadcasting world. An under-fire Downing Street will be hoping she brings a calm tone and a compassionate face to a government in crisis.

The problem is that in creating this role at all – a mystifying decision, for all Stratton’s talents – the Prime Minister’s team has set up a televised forum in which the media can quiz the government on camera every day, keeping embarrassing stories going.

Stratton was appointed by Lee Cain, who is, for now, the PM’s accident-prone communications supremo. Cain instigated the appointment process, and then Boris decided that Stratton was his favoured candidate. A former colleague of Stratton, who thinks she will become a big strategic player in her own right in Number 10, says: “Allegra is ten times the operator Lee Cain is. Lee Cain is f***ed. He’s been forced to appoint his nemesis, which is amusing.”