No words

It seems that the past friendliness between Boris Johnson and Today programme editor Sarah Sands is over. The Mail on Sunday reports that the new Downing Street Director of Communications Lee Cain has told staff he considers the show a 'total waste of time'.

The paper says he has told Whitehall spin doctors and special advisers to ignore it – and to refuse to put up Ministers to appear on it.  It also claims that senior BoJo advisor Dominic Cummings told a No 10 staff meeting last week: 'I never listened to the Today programme for the entire year of the referendum and I intend to repeat this while I am here.'  He apparently urged colleagues to avoid the programme too, 'unless they change format and actually start exploring serious subjects in a serious way'.

It's not clear when this policy came into force: Kwasi Karteng, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy appeared on Friday's programme. At the end of last month, Dominic Raab had this exchange with Mishal Husain.

Foreign Secretary @DominicRaab suggests that there is a mandate for a no-deal Brexit#r4today | @MishalHusain | https://t.co/TQDEohgd53 pic.twitter.com/nRwsgb0Ziz

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) July 29, 2019