The BBC, Guardian and Mirror have all been snubbed for Suella Braverman’s “vanity trip” to Rwanda, according to reports.
The home secretary is set to squander thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money flying to Kigali to promote her cruel immigration plan.
She will follow in her predecessor’s footsteps by visiting the country to drum up publicity for her bid to send asylum seekers there.
Eleven months ago Priti Patel made the same trip as she signed off the £140 million deal.
Since then, not a single deportation flight has gone there.
According to the Independent’s Lizzie Dearden, the home sec will be departing for Kigali on Friday evening accompanied by media representatives from outlets including GB News, the Daily Mail, Times, Express and The Telegraph.
The BBC, The Independent, The Guardian, Daily Mirror and i were not invited.
In 2020, there was a mass walkout at a press briefing in Downing Street after reporters from some outlets were ordered to leave Number 10 for a select briefing of certain favoured journalists.
Downing Street ordered senior journalists from some of the UK’s major news organisations to leave before a briefing on Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans – prompting a walkout by colleagues from across the media.
One of those present described Downing Street’s actions as “sinister and sad”.
Selected journalists were invited to Number 10 for a briefing from officials, but correspondents from organisations who were not on Downing Street’s hand-picked list also tried to get in.
According to those present, when political correspondents arrived inside Number 10 they were asked their names and told to stand on opposite sides of the entrance hall – either side of a rug.
The Independent’s political editor Andy Woodcock said Number 10’s director of communications Lee Cain then invited those on one side to enter and told those on the other to leave.