How the UK government 'turned on a sixpence' to change its story: A discourse analysis of the No.10 daily news conferences

Hostility to the freedom of the press and newsgathering was clearly evident within the new Conservative administration: certain journalists were excluded from Government Briefings and there was an embargo on Ministers appearing on the BBC's prime morning news programme, Today. Political theorists and commentators argue that governments in many liberal democracies have downgraded or bypassed impartiality in favour of a form of neutrality that offers a blank slate upon which successive governments imprint their own ambitions and aspirations. The publication in 2016 of the 7-year Chilcot inquiry into the 2003 Iraq War called for a clear distinction to be drawn between the political need to argue for particular policy actions and the requirement on the part of officials to present evidence. The dataset consists of 92 consecutive No.10 Briefings that took place from Monday 16 March 2020 to Tuesday 23 June 2020.