Layla Moran last night announced she is now dating former Lib Dem head of press Rosy Cobb. Guido revealed last month that Cobb was suspended from the party after forging a back-dated email as part of a plot to suppress a story about selling voter data to the Remain campaign.
In an announcement to PinkNews and MailOnline, Moran announced she now identifies as a pansexual which means she now hits on all genders, not just men. This must have come as a bit of a slap in the face for her ex…
Channel 4 News covered the LibDem staffer who’s been suspended, after they were caught red-handed forging a back-dated email, to try and back up a legal threat over a story the LibDems wanted to suppress, on their selling their voter data to the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign. Which morphed into the People’s Vote…
The LibDem press office has been spinning for days that it’s “just a very junior person gone rogue” – see the report in The Guardian, simply describing them as a “campaigner”, like they were some lowly volunteer. Guido can reveal it is actually the party’s Head of Media, Rosy Cobb, who forged the email, and who’s now been suspended, pending a full investigation.
Rosy has taken down her Twitter account, as well as her LinkedIn account. Guido warned the LibDems about Rosy’s lack of any media experience when she took over as the party’s press chief last year. The now discredited legal threats over the original article came from Goodman Derrick acting on behalf of “Our clients: The Liberal Democrats Party and Ms Joanne Swinson”. The paper trail shows this must have been signed off right from the top…
Whatever happened to the LibDem press office? Not long ago it was known for its punchy quotes, decent stories, occasionally funny tweets and ability to shoehorn the party into journalists’ copy even though they have little of any news value to offer. Lobby hacks are noting that these days they seem to have disappeared:
What has happened to the Liberal Democrat press team? No engagement any more. Just boiler plate press releases reacting to news that has already happened. Very poor indeed nowadays I am afraid. @LibDemPress
— Christopher Hope 📝 (@christopherhope) February 22, 2018
There’s a real opportunity for the Libs to run a more effective story generating machine in Westminster than Labour. They aren’t taking it https://t.co/yAvvoLnGFJ
— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) February 22, 2018
In recent months the LibDem press office has lost its three top spinners Phil Reilly, Jasper Gerard and Paul Haydon. The new LibDem head of media is Rosy Cobb, formerly a policy adviser with no experience in the press office. The word on Great George Street is that their other two senior spinners Christine Longworth and Dave Shaw are considering leaving for better jobs elsewhere. There is so much churn that the new faces are unknown even to HQ colleagues, let alone the Lobby. Essentially the LibDem press office has no one who can speak to journalists. Is there anyone left at LibDem HQ who can sort this mess out?
