this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. hello, i'm roz atkins. welcome to this week's addition of the media show. we're going to talk about two enormous scoops and one resignation. it was pippa crerar from the daily mirror who first reported on that christmas party in downing street last week. and then we had paul brand from itv news putting out

a video he'd obtained from a practice press briefing inside number ten last december in which we saw downing street staff laughing, joking about a party at number ten during lockdown. the issue has been everywhere in the media, it dominated prime minister's questions as well. and we're going to get into exactly how those scoops happened with help of pippa and with paul. the first of all, the prime minister's adviser, allegra stratton, has resigned. she was one of those people in the video and this is what she said about that resignation. my remarks seem to make light of the rules, rules that people were doing everything to obey, that was never my intention. i will regret those remarks for the rest of my days and i offer my profound apologies to all of you at home for them. there's allegra stratton explaining her resignation. we also want to look at this story and what it tells

us about the broader relationship between government and the press lobby. to help us do that we have katie perrier, director of communications for teresa may when she was prime minister. michael crick, political commentatorfor mail and kitty donaldson, the political editor for bloomberg news. let's start with pippa crerar from the mirror. it was your story which started all of this. when did you first hear that there had been a christmas party in downing street? well, i actually first heard rumours way back injanuary but they were just that. and i wasn't able to substantiate, i tried my best but didn't manage to get there. and then about a month ago i got handed what i would describe as a metaphorical brown paper envelope which contained enough evidence in it for me to start asking questions again. so i then spent several weeks speaking to sources about whether a party had taken place and then once i'd established that it had, speaking to them about

who was at it, what was done at the party, secret santa and the festive games and drinks and nibbles and so on. and then we were just really waiting for a moment that would be the right time to publish. so you come back to the story, you start having lots of conversations building on what you first heard about in january. can you pinpoint when you first thought, "my goodness, this is a huge story?" well, last tuesday i was sitting in the number nine briefing room, the same room in fact that paul's video that paul and itv showed of allegra stratton was filmed in. and listening to the prime minister's official spokesman at the normal lobby briefing. that morning on the radio drjenny harris, the uk health security agency chief, had suggested that people might want to be a bit careful about how they socialise at christmas and cut back

on that in the coming weeks because of the emergence of omicron variant. and with that in the back of our minds we were all asking question of the pm's spokesman about whether we should be having christmas parties, whether it was wise to follow her advice and what the official guidance was. and he made quite clear that the official guidance at that time was not to cut back on christmas parties, these things could ahead. he was really quite clear about that. some thought that was a bit of a slapdown, in fact, ofjenny harris. i remember sitting there thinking "my goodness, people are talking about christmas parties again, we have the uncertainties of what happened to the next few weeks with omicron coming up, this is going to be on people's minds again, now is the moment to do this story." so you decided to run the story on tuesday of last week. but were you ready to go with it quite a lot earlier? i suppose i could have pulled it together more quickly. none of this was actually written as i sat there in the number ten briefing.

i had all the information i needed but i needed to sit at my keyboard and bash it all down. i did that very quickly in the day and lawyers wanted to have a look and the people who put the paper together, the online team, they were discussing eyes. it's a bit of an operation. and you say that your editors quite understandably trust you because of your track record. but when you go to them and say "i've got this source," how many sources do they want from you? is there a particular number you have to clear? i think again it depends on the story. i have a personal rule that if you are writing a big story like this that you can'tjust do it on the basis of one source unless you have uncontroversial evidence or they are somebody that you trust absolutely implicitly. but i've never done a big story like this based on just one source, i've always preferred multiple sources. not least because in establishing the facts i think it's quite important to be able to, you might get one bit of

information from one person which corroborates something from something else. and you build up a picture. the more the better always. how many were there on this particular story? i have several sources on this one. so that's your experience. we will come back to it. paul, let's bring you in. when did you hear about this video? we heard about this video some time ago. it's actually really interesting listening to pippa explained her story, because i had a similar experience, we were aware of this video some time ago. actually, sometimes it takes the work of one journalist to help anotherjournalist. and we had some really important considerations when were looking at this video. it was filmed, ultimately, in a private setting. so there's a high bar for publishing that video, it needs a public interest. and on the first look at the video and before the context of the past few weeks, that bar we didn't feel was met. but when pippa published her story and the denials began coming out of downing street, the public interest transformed. because we were able to demonstrate that perhaps what downing street were telling us wasn't quite in line with the way

they were talking behind

the first time televised briefings happened in the uk, like the white house briefings that already happened in america, so the idea was that she would come and present what is actually a regular lobby briefing that takes place but it would be on camera for the first time. what she was doing was asking colleagues to help her to rehearse, there were press officers and special advises in the room that were throwing her the kind of questions journalists would ask her potentially if she was doing it for real on that day. and she was rehearsing her answers. sometimes formally, sometimes less formally, which is actually

what you see in the clip that you just laid there. we were looking at the video and of course the impact that it's had. we noticed some questions coming up again and again about it.

the shorter version before the longer. there is an interesting dilemma for broadcasters and newspapers these days which is how much do you reveal your hand on social media alone? ultimately, as a news organisation, you like people to consume your content through your own platform. itv has a website and an app, and ideally what we'd like people to do is go in and read the full story, the full piece ofjournalism that's taken a lot of time and effort. so what we decided to do was to release a short clip which gave a flavour of the story so they could understand what they would be going through to read more about. and then the full video, the full context of the article was there on the website to be read in full. and the final question we see being asked a lot is whether this was filmed off a screen, or whether it's actually the original video. that's something i can't get into it with you, roz. as pippa was saying earlier, protection of our sources is of the utmost important to us. and that means notjust protecting the source's identity — but protecting how material comes into our hands.

well, of course you know paul, and everyone listening knows, at pmqs earlier this was the dominant issue. and borisjohnson turned to the video that paul had obtained. i apologise unreservedly for the offence that it is caused up and down the country and i apologise for the impression that it gives. but i repeat, mr speaker, that i've been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party... and that no covid rules were broken, and that is what i have been repeatedly assured. and pippa, as you listen to that and you listen to the prime minister saying essentially the description of the event that you reported on is wrong, how does it feel? well, it's no different from what they've been saying every day this week, frankly. i guess it comes out

a couple of things, one is your interpretation of what a party in my mind, a0 to 50 people crowded cheek by cheek into a medium—sized room drinking, playing party games until past midnight, even if it is in a work environment is a party. secondly, the legalities of it. they are only three areas in which the government could point to to justify its claim that this gathering or any gathering at this time was within the rules. one is whether it was a permitted event but they would been no mingling allowed between households, the second is described as a reasonable excuse of a gathering at a work environment. i don't think anybody would regard a christmas party as a reasonable work reason. thirdly, this disputed claim as to whether this sort of event was allowed, permitted because covid regulations don't apply on government departments was up that's a very tricky ones of the government.

if it's true and i don't know whether it is, you'll have to ask legal minds on that, then it would literally be one set of rules for government and one set of rules for everyone else. which i think would be an incredibly bad look for them. pippa, paul stay with us. this is a story that pippa is very closely connected to. lots of people been following the christmas party story making comparisons with the barnett castle story involving dominic cummings, if you want to hear that the inside story of that story, pippa along with the editor of the guardian spoke to the media show on an earlier edition of the programme a few months back which you can still listen to online. let's bring in bloomberg news in—house communication and former director of communications went to reset may was prime minister katie, i wonder how you assess

the government has handled the last nine or ten days. one disaster following another. i feel that boris johnson i actually made things worse at prime minister's questions today, not better. _ i never like to see an adviser go and cry on doorsteps - because actually, the person that went home early ended | up taking the rap for it. i don't think that's fair either. - he says he's sorry for the event, - for the video, and the impression it gives, l but there's no sorry for the party. - in this note commentjohn other parties that have been _ allegations today as well. i think the public are i really following fort nor are journalists either. but he has a track record of not saying sorry and he is the prime minister and was mayor of london, something you were involved in. so you'll know that has been a successful political tactic for him? the thing with borisjohnson is people give borisjohnsonj leeway in a way they never give any other politician _ leeway. he doesn't act like something he's not, he's not saying he's| whiter than white. it is what it is, -

and they seem to buy that— and they seem to like it. you'll see the conservatives won again only a week - or so ago. it seems to work for him. the problem is is that this . is a moral issue and it's also an issue where people have been stuck at home and lost loved - ones during lockdown. they don't take kindly to that. this might be the moment where his luck runs out. i now, someone who been offering commentary in the last few days has been dominic cummings, former adviser to the prime minister. he tweeted "some lobby hacks were also at parties in the number ten flat so they're trying to bury the story." you covered west mnister for many years but are there situation in which lobby journalists either don't maximise a story or turn away from it completely? i think inevitably. it's less the case that it used to be. 30 years ago, a0 years ago lobbyjournalists would turn a blind eye to all sorts of things going on in government in order to preserve their sources.

i think that is a lot less the case these days with up and i think the lobby journalists, politicaljournal journalists those based in west minister are a lot tougher on politicians and rightly so. i think it's difficult in this case because if some of the people, some of the lobby journalists were at the party there, potentially sources people as they well shouldn't we as journals should expose what other journals are at the party? it's very tricky for people doing the story to get the story far and perhaps other journalists and then expose them. they can't do that, can they? pippa crerar, you be reporting on this, were there any journalist at the party? at the christmas party on december ten there were no other journalists are no journals there. the allegation which dominic cummings is making possibly people who, journalists may have been friends with the prime minister was why. certainly there were no journalists present. kitty donaldson, let's bring

you in, what's your approach, what's bloomberg's approach on when to socialise and interact with politicians and when not to? that's a difficult question. obviously as a reporter i go and see sources all the time and i'll have coffee and i have lunches with senior politicians. and sometimes i go to parties that i'm invited to, the prime minister usually has an objection christmas party for journalists. we're not sure if that's good ahead this year... i wonder if you'll be invited, pippa? i hope so, if it goes ahead. sorry kitty, i interrupted. the thing i would try and keep in mind is that when i'm reporting on the people they are not my friends. there is a personal detachment there. do you feel that detachment paul as you watch the consequences of your story

have a personal impact on allegra stratton and personally other people to? the story involving _ allegra stratton was the former the story involving i allegra stratton was very kind. there was an interesting - dimension when we are tackling the story for that we decided that we had to treat it - as if she was any other subject in the report where we had - to maintain that professional separation from the story. i and imagine she was any other figure in numberten_ who perhaps we didn't go anywhere near as well. . we are human beings . and you have sympathies and you have - feelings for people. we don't like to see anyone suffering because of a story that we have broken. but ultimately, it's the public interest that we serve - asjournalist. katie, you managed these relationships from the other side when you were working with theresa may, how did you view them as friendship, as working relationship, as nothing more than something

that served both sides? i think it was a working relationship. and i've known many of these journals before they answered number ten. it's a game of cat and mouse when they feel you're constantly trying to cover up the truth and we feel on the other side that journalists are picking over every single word and tried to make something out of it, trying to say that there is wrongdoing when actually it once look of a word and all of a sudden you are in a whole new territory. i think there are cosy relationship between special advisers and journalists and that's how it goes. it does come back to how your principal want to ask with up theresa mae didn't want that cosy relationship, she didn't want that structure. it changed quite differently from my relationships with journalists then the one david cameron had before that. and there you go to the us and trump would choose an journalist from the sun

to ask questions of trauma from the uk side. afterwards it hma, you call them your friends? i said no, they're not our friends. we live our democracy. he didn't like that very much. no, i imagine he didn't. it's interesting you talk about agendas both of politicians and their advisers but also of journals. michael, when you're considering source information coming in her direction, presumably you're acutely aware that whoever is giving it to you may well have an agenda. every time some source tells you something you have to say well, why are they telling me this, and why they come to be, what is it to try to get across, and i believe them? what is it to try to get across, can i believe them? and depending on whether they've got an interest in what's coming up or something they happen to know, that all becomes part of the assessment and part of the calculation that you have to make as to how many and what strength of other sources you need. this whole thing about friendship is a difficult one. allegra used to be my producer on newsnight. i was on friendly terms with her, i can't say she is a close

friend these days. he was a colleague of mine at work during theresa may on downing street and work with me on the bbc. these relationships are very difficult. my own stand is to try and keep a certain distance is much as i can. but there have been relationships in the past. i remember in the blair years both the alastair campbell and peter mendelson were very close to certain journalists and it always seemed to be those journalists that came out with the stories that were favourable to the blair government. and i was very uncomfortable with that. and i think a lot of colleagues were uncomfortable with that. that certain journals can be used as mouthpieces for certain politicians. kitty, i wonder if you agree with that assessment. absolutely. i started work in the lobby during the blair years and i did know of many people it seemed to me that the certain senior types that i think at the time were getting all these groups

was up and my employers were saying, where are you are in all this, why are you not getting scoops? as i get older and develop my own contacts same thing happens with that you have to take a view every time you are told something as michael said, why is this person telling me this and what is their position in the party? presumably if they give you information a couple of times and you don't run a story, in the end they think well, thisjournalists isn't much use to me because i'm giving them valuable information but they're not putting it in the public domain. yeah, there's always at risk. i was trying to take a view that you're playing the long game and if someone is insisting on telling you things you got to wonder why they are saying this to you. much trickier is the occasion when you got a source who gives you regular good information and then you get some information that's adverse to that source and you have to make — you're in danger of losing that source if you run it. ultimately i think you have to run it because ultimately

you have tojudge the story on the public interest and not whether you're going to mess up a potential future source. but those kind of dilemmas you get all the time in this business ofjournalism which makes it all the more fascinating in terms of what one should morally do. it certainly is fascinating listening to all five of you. as we entered the home stretch of this edition of media show, pippa and paul, i must ask you, when you're in the middle of the maelstrom, when the information is out there, are you talking to the sources that gave you this information, and you are you saying to them look if you gave me this information would have this impact? i'm in touch with sources but normally and certainly in this case it's more of a case of are you ok,

how are you finding all of this. almost like a support, i guess. a duty of care? definitely, absolutely. and that continues was up i'm still in touch with some sources from barnard castle scoop. paul, who spoke to the person to give you the video? we have. and i would absolutely repeat what pippa has said about duty of care. that something you have to bear mine all the way through. all of us on the show today are used to operating in a media environment. often the sources was speaking to have no experience whatsoever of the media until the point at which they are thrust into that spotlight. and to some degree was the case with our source and our story yesterday. so we absolutely have a duty of care to them to make sure they are ok, that they're dealing with the pressure 0k. because they are anxious and like any source would be about being found out. and we have to make sure that we hold their hands with that, really. i've only 30 seconds michael, in those seconds we have a resignation to become a high—profile resignation. does the story still have more in it, do you think?

a lot more in it. and i think allegra strands duty now is go to the local police station and tell them what she knew. we've got a cabinet secretary inquiry, police inquiry potentially, they take it seriously. this is going to run and run. there is huge anger on the conservative backbenchers amongst conservative ministers. and so many other conservatives have been dragged into this by having to defend the prime minister and things they clearly don't believe. michael, that is a last point of today's programme. thank you very much for all five of you. i suspect we could've talked about this for a long time. don't forget you can listen back to all her editions via the bbc sounds at the end the country will be back with you at the usual time next week. bye— bye.

hello. well, tuesday is going to be generally quite cloudy, perhaps damp in a few places, nothing spectacular. it is december after all. you can see a lot of cloud on the satellite picture, but this little gap in the cloud that's over us right now has actually led to some clear spells across parts of northern england and northern ireland, too, perhaps the north of wales. so, i think these are the most likely areas for fog to form early in the morning. the very far north—west of the uk, wet and windy first thing. the south of the country, really quite mild. look at these starting temperatures — 10 degrees along the channel coast. so, this is the weather map for tuesday. we have high pressure to the south, which will continue to build through the course of the week, but weather fronts are grazing the north—west of the uk. so, for ourfriends in the western isles, it's going to be wet and windy at times. we are expecting some rain or so in orkney and shetland.

perhaps a little bit of rain around the lowlands and south—western areas of scotland, but i think eastern areas, in fact all along the east of the country, i think there will be some brightness around. and temperatures typically around 7—9 degrees, but southern areas, london, cardiff, plymouth with the cloud and the murk hanging around, that mild air from the south, it will be around 12 degrees in one or two spots. here's the weather map for wednesday. so, again, high pressure in the south, weather fronts grazing the north, but increasingly these weather fronts will bring less rain as we go through the course of the week. so, more than anything, it's just an area of cloud with some dampness here across parts of scotland and northern ireland. it's because it's high pressure starting to build in from the south. and look at these temperatures — double figures right across the board midweek. now, this high pressure is going to anchor itself across the uk thursday and friday, and i wouldn't be surprised if it stays here, well, right up till christmas quite possibly. this means generally settled conditions across the uk, light winds, with some fog in the morning. still mild on thursday, but i think gradually what we'll find is these temperatures, even though we'll have high pressure, gradually these temperatures will ease so down into single

figures by the time we get to the weekend. but i think it's going to stay mostly settled for the rest of the week. bye— bye.

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