DOMINIC Cummings’ lengthy statement in Downing Street’s Rose Garden was near-unprecedented.
Special advisers are supposed to be in the background, not offering answers to journalists live on television.
It was also notably the first press conference in a while to be held with journalists in real life rather than by video conference. Though given Cummings was almost drowned out for the first 20 minutes by some sort of siren, it might be the last for a bit longer yet.
The location, too, was odd. Number 10’s flower beds don’t get seen much by the public. In 1985, Margaret Thatcher was photographed picking tulips. In 1995, John Major announced his famous “put up or shut up” challenge to rivals. And in 2010 it was here where David Cameron and Nick Clegg publicly sealed the deal on the coalition.
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