Boris Johnson has agreed to hold daily televised briefings on the coronavirus crisis, after ministers told Downing Street to revamp its strategy for communicating information about the pandemic to the public.

Following intense criticism of the government's messaging over the last week, ministers urged Number 10 to make a raft of other changes to its communications strategy, including:

Short Cold War-style public information films aired at prime time on the BBC, and during advertisement breaks on other channels, giving clear advice on what the government is doing and what the public should do.



Wraparound advertisements in all newspapers.

Information graphics with up-to-date advice in bullet point form.

A single figure to lead on communications, rather than different voices appearing in the media saying different things.

The proposed reorganisation of the government’s communications strategy came after ministers admitted even that they were “confused” by health secretary Matt Hancock’s decision to distance the government from the so-called “herd immunity” strategy that was discussed by chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance and senior Boris Johnson aides last week.



On Friday, Vallance told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “Our aim is to try and reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely; also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity so more people are immune to this disease and we reduce the transmission.”

But on Sunday, following widespread criticism of the herd immunity theory, Hancock appeared to contradict Vallance and Johnson’s senior aides, insisting: “Herd immunity is not our goal or policy”.

Following the confusion, ministers who spoke to BuzzFeed News said there must be a daily televised briefing to provide clearer updates for the public on the latest information about coronavirus.

There has been heavy criticism — both privately inside the government and publicly among opposition MPs — that information is being given to the public via briefings to individual journalists, rather than as an address to the nation.

Ministers wanted instructions for over-70s and the wider public to be delivered formally in daily televised news conferences — something to which Downing Street has now agreed. Clips from the news conferences would then be played out throughout the rest of the day on the news channels, and on the BBC News at Ten.

BuzzFeed News is told that one of the main requests from ministers is for there to be a single figure as the government’s communications lead.

Currently, they believe there are too many different voices from the government saying too many different things to the media at different times.