The Lobby Class

Political journalism in Westminster remains deeply unrepresentative of the country at large

The BBC’s Media Show this week dedicated itself to the question of political journalism and the lobby. On the panel was my old colleague Ian Dunt from the I, Caroline Wheeler from The Sunday Times, Eleni Courea from Politico and Boris Johnson’s former Director of Communications, Guto Harri.

(I should say at this point that it reveals rather a lot about the cosiness of the lobby system that I have shared an office inside Parliament, at some point, with every single member of that panel, bar Harri.)

However, at the end of the discussion, the host asked each panellist what would be the one thing they would do to improve political journalism in Westminster.

That’s when it got interesting.