Update 1 September 2023: Rishi Sunak’s director of communications Amber de Botton, who left ITV News to take up the role, has left after less than a year.
She said on Friday: “It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as the Prime Minister’s Director of Communications but I have decided it is the right time to move on. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Prime Minister for his support and his leadership.
“The team he has built around him is dedicated and focused because those are the qualities he inspires. I also want to thank my colleagues – No10 is a demanding and high pressure place to work – yet the professionalism and talent they display every day is exceptional.”
According to Spectator political editor Katy Balls, de Botton’s departure was “amicable and she leaves on good terms”.
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Original story 31 October 2022: ITV News‘ head of UK news, Amber de Botton, is joining Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s new administration as its director of communications.
De Botton, who last week made two appearances on the shortlist for Press Gazette’s British Journalism Awards for ITV News’ partygate coverage, is the second ITV journalist to join the government in recent years.
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In April 2020 then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak hired former ITV News national editor (and wife of his close friend, Spectator political editor James Forsyth) Allegra Stratton to be his head of strategic communications.
Stratton would be poached later that year by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson to be his spokesperson for televised briefings – only to become the face of the partygate scandal in late 2021 when ITV News obtained footage of Stratton at a briefing rehearsal laughing about a rule-breaking party.
Picture: PA Wire/Victoria Jones
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