The Londoner: What’s next for No 10’s Allegra Stratton?

Allegra Stratton
PA Archive
Robbie Griffiths30 November 2021

WHAT’S next for Allegra Stratton now that the COP26 climate conference is over? No10 still seems unsure. Stratton was hired as the Government’s spokesperson for planned television briefings last year on a salary of £125,000, before the Prime Minister changed his mind and cancelled the idea.

Stratton then became the PM’s spokesperson for COP26 in Glasgow last month. Her next role has not been made clear. Downing Street spent £2.6 million on a TV briefing room, which has never been used, except for private film screenings. A former Conservative cabinet minister told The Londoner that the Government “clearly had not thought through the idea of appointing a spokesperson to do on-camera briefings” and the climate job was “inevitably temporary”.

They added: “Allegra is very capable and it is a waste of her talents — not to mention the cost to taxpayers — if she is left without a proper role”.

A Downing Street spokesperson insisted that Stratton is still the PM’s spokesperson on COP26, as the UK holds the presidency for 12 months. They declined to discuss her role going forward, saying next year was “a long way off”.

Snapper’s tears for designer Abloh

Annie Leibovitz
PA

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ gave an emotional presentation of her work at a Fane event at the Barbican last night. The photographer wept while showing portraits of designer Virgil Abloh, who died on Sunday.

During a lighter moment, Leibovitz remembered working with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Leibovitz says Her Majesty has her “own ideas” during shoots, particularly wanting pictures with “her grandchildren... and her dogs”. But the snapper made a faux pas when asking the monarch to wear a heavy cape: “The Queen was not very happy about that.” Off with her head.

PA

‘Don’t embrace’ manly Mrs Brown

BBC

SUCCESSION writer Georgia Pritchett has taken issue with the cross dressing in BBC comedy Mrs Brown’s Boys. “One of the most successful sitcoms in the UK is a man [Brendan O’Carroll] dressed up as a woman”, Pritchett tells the Postcards From Midlife podcast. “Why are we a society that embraces a man dressed up as a woman more than a woman? Wouldn’t it be great to have an older woman lead a sitcom?”

GB News man in curry hotspot

Omid Djalili
Getty Images

OMID DJALILI found GB News presenter Patrick Christys’s sore spot at the Curry Awards in Battersea last night, asking him: “Do you have any viewers yet?” Christys retorted: “We’ve got a few”, which may be the problem. Christys then claimed GB News represents the North, and said he was the best person to hand out the northern curry house award as he went to school on Manchester’s curry mile. “Yes there’s no better person to present the award,” comic Djalili replied flatly. Spicy.

Glenn closes in on Lloyd Webber

Londoner’s Diary: Tues 30th November 2021

Flannels At The Fashion Awards
1/10

GLENN CLOSE and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber shared a cuddle at a preview of Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre last night. Jude Law hosted a screening of The Hand of God at The Curzon Mayfair, which stars Filippo Scotti. Elsewhere, models Leomie Anderson and Stella Maxwell were at a Fashion Awards event at The Londoner hotel, while actor Paul Mescal and boutique owner Annie Doble attended a Tommy Hilfiger after-party.

SW1A

Ibrahim Dogus
Daniel Hambury

MPs debating the Channel crossings crisis might remember that a Kurdish refugee founded Westminster’s much-loved Kebab Awards. Entrepreneur and Labour councillor Ibrahim Dogus tells us he likely couldn’t have come here today, as rules have tightened, and called for “more legal routes to stop the dangerous crossings”.

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HAS even Dominic Cummings given up on the Brexit dream? The PM’s former adviser and Vote Leave architect used to have the message “Get Brexit done, then ARPA” as his constant WhatsApp caption, with the latter referring to a US-style tech revolution. Now the message is gone. Surely the sunlit uplands are still out there somewhere?

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