Guido’s old enough to remember when half the Lobby kicked up a stink over Suella Braverman’s trip to Rwanda in March after certain outlets were “barred” from accompanying her. The Guardian moaned about an “unusual level of control imposed on media coverage“, while the Mirror insisted Braverman had “come under fire for excluding papers critical of the Government”. The same thing happened the previous year with Priti Patel.

The Lobby cartel has, in the past, taken a strong line against selective access – even organising a walkout when Lee Cain tried it. Now it turns out only two papers were invited to join Rachel Reeves on her expensive quest to the US this week: The Sun and the FT. Rivals at Bloomberg and Politico were not given the same embedded status despite their readers’ keen interest in the politics of the would-be Chancellor. No one else got a look-in on Rachel’s champagne-fuelled trip to Wall Street. Where is the outrage this time? The Lobby seems remarkably quiet about the whole thing. Perhaps they’re not interested in covering the (likely) future Chancellor’s economic policies. Or maybe they’d rather not lose important access ahead of an incoming Labour government. Wouldn’t want to get in Matthew Doyle’s bad books too early…

Guido’s also pleased to see Rachel’s explanation for flying Business Class, despite previously trying to hide it and criticising out-of-touch Tories. She claims to The Sun’s Ryan Sabey:

“To operate on the level I want to operate at I think it was appropriate to ask a donor to fund this trip so we can do it in a way that we need to and want to.”

She needed to be in Business Class just to do her job properly, apparently. Labour donors should take note: an effective Chancellor won’t come cheap. Guido asked what seat Sabey himself was allocated, and it turns out he was in row 32 – economy class. Hopefully he was still able to operate on the level Rupert Murdoch expects…

Guido always felt the amount of abuse Holly and Phil got for skipping the queue for the Queen was excessive, given countless other hacks got away with it. Indeed, it has to be said that one of Guido’s own reporters took advantage of the fast-track to spend half an hour in Westminster Hall watching the procession. Now, an FoI has revealed just how many other journalists skipped the queue. 733…

Most surprising of all, given they led a lot of the Holly and Phil hate, is the number of Sun hacks who skipped the queue. On September 21 the paper splashed with “Queue-jump Holly Fights to Keep Job”. On October 1 they splashed with “Phil £1M Ads Axed”. The number of Sun journalists who jumped said queue? 35…

ITV themselves, of whom Phil and Holly were just two, sent a whopping 21 journalists along the hack fast-track. The Mail, which broke news of the social media backlash and revealed that Phil and Holly weren’t on the accreditation list, also sent 21 journalists from their various outlets. Taking the crown, however was the BBC, who got 62 journalists in to view the Queen lying in state without queueing up along the Southbank for 12 hours. 

The total number of passes being applied for each year has risen from 122 in 2017 to 385 in 2021 – with a peak of 503 in 2019. Of over 1600 applications between 2017-2021, just three were rejected – all from the BBC.

The British media have the ultimate golden ticket to state occasions these days…

In rare SW1 scenes, it was the Lobby – not MPs – leaking via Whatsapp this lunchtime.

At 11.19 the Press Gallery chat was lit up by FT pol-ed George Parker forwarding a link to the gov.uk page on tax dividends. Harry Cole promptly thanked Parker for the tip and commiserated with him for buggering up the FT’s splash. 

Sure enough, at half past four, George hit publish on an FT exclusive – that the government is looking at hammering hard-working, self-employed people by halving the current tax-free dividend allowance, and increasing taxes on dividends beyond the annual limit.

Parker’s tweet of the story joked that the scoop was “hinted at exclusively by mistake on the Press Gallery WhatsApp group earlier.”

Guido’s not a member of the Lobby and therefore not privy to the chat. A co-conspirator was only too happy to oblige…

If there is one group of hacks more precious than our own illustrious Lobby hacks, it is the White House press corps. They are having a bit of a meltdown after Boris initiated an impromptu press conference in the Oval Office, calling for questions from British hacks. Biden being less keen on answering unscripted questions was not happy at taking their questions and did not call US hacks. In fact White House staffers drowned out their shouted questions when they tried and the press were marched out of the Oval Office. White House press secretary Jen Psaki made it clear that Boris did it off his own bat with no regard for protocol or Sleepy Joe’s limitations…

While the government may be on the rocks this week, one member of the payroll has recently found themselves under particular siege: Mike Freer MP, the Tory accommodation whip. Over the summer recess hundreds of MPs and staff are set to decant from Norman Shaw North to Richmond House as part of the ongoing restoration and renewal of parliament. Crumbling walls, falling masonry and general dilapidation are just some of the problems their offices are currently beset with. 

Not all are content with the move, however. While one MP told Guido they were happily surprised by the slightly larger room they have just been told they’ll be moving into, for a number of others the extra walking distance during future divisions has left them praying for an alternative. According to one Tory source a couple of MPs have even resorted to highlighting how many of the Lobby still haven’t returned to parliament post-lockdown; enquiring to the whips about the possibility of turfing hacks out and colonising their prime office space at the heart of the palace. Lee Cain would be proud…

Today’s Lobby briefing began with more than a u-turn on previously-declared transparency reforms, the PM’s press secretary will now no longer be named after their official briefings, a concession to transparency dating back to the Blair era. This follows the scrapping of the planned openly transparent live briefings…

Lobby Chairman, Macer Hall: “Thank you, Rosie; just before we start off, Rosie, I think you’d like to revert to the previous convention where we quote you in these briefings on the record as the PM’s press secretary, but we don’t name you – does that sound correct?”

PM’s Press Secretary, Rosie Bate-Williams: “Precisely, that sounds perfect, thanks”

A set-back for more open and transparent government welcomed with the active connivance of the Lobby cartel.  After Guido revealed the PM’s former director of communications, James Slack, was leaving for the Sun, Jack Doyle was promoted into his old role. Max Blain replaced Slack as the PM’s official spokesperson and Rosie Bate-Williams is Boris’s new press secretary. If you’re confused, prepare to stay that way – all of them will be anonymous from now on…