Allegra Stratton Biography – Allegra Stratton Wiki
Allegra Stratton born Allegra Elizabeth Jane Stratton is a British former political aide, writer, and former journalist who served as Downing Street Press Secretary under Boris Johnson from November 2020 to April 2021. She worked for The Guardian as a political correspondent until joining the BBC in 2012, where she was political editor of BBC Two’s Newsnight from 2012 to 2016. She worked for ITV as national editor of ITV News from 2016 to 2018 and co-presenter of Peston on Sunday from 2016 to 2018.
After leaving journalism, she became a Conservative Party political advisor. She was Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Director of Strategic Communications at the Treasury from April until October 2020 when she became the press secretary for 10 Downing Street. In April 2021 she was appointed as spokesperson for COP26 President Alok Sharma. She resigned from this post on December 8, 2021, after footage was released of her at a press conference rehearsal during the COVID-19 lockdown in December 2020 where she joked about a Christmas party at 10 Downing Street with colleagues.
She worked as a producer for the BBC, on the foreign desk at The Times, and wrote for The Independent and the New Statesman. She then joined The Guardian as a political correspondent, presenting the newspaper’s Politics Weekly podcast with journalist Tom Clark. During this period Stratton wrote a non-fiction book, Muhajababes, that explores the youth culture of the Middle East and the contradictions of the modern life of young adults in Muslim societies. The book was based on her experiences of traveling in the region in 2005.
She returned to the BBC on February 20, 2012, as political editor of Newsnight, replacing Michael Crick who left to become a political correspondent for Channel 4. In May the same year, she faced criticism for a Newsnight interview with a single mother who was claiming housing benefit. The interviewee described feeling “humiliated” by Stratton, who misrepresented her as unemployed. Private Eye magazine reported that Stratton had chosen the single mother over several other interviewees offered, including a couple with four children who had lost their jobs and faced homelessness. This incident led to a 20,000-signature petition soliciting an apology from Stratton and Newsnight. After an official complaint to the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit, a correction and apology was issued by Peter Rippon, the editor of Newsnight, in August 2012.
In November 2015, the BBC announced that Stratton was leaving to join ITV News as its national editor. She made her first appearance on ITV’s News at Ten in January 2016 and co-presented Peston on Sunday with Robert Peston until April 2018, when she departed to spend weekends with her children.
She quit ITV News in April 2020 to become Director of Strategic Communications at the Treasury under Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Six months later, in October 2020, she was given the newly created role of Downing Street press secretary, to present proposed televised press briefings initially scheduled for launch in November 2020. The briefings were subsequently delayed to January 2021 and it was reported that they would take place when the House of Commons was sitting on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The January launch date was repeatedly pushed back due to the COVID-19 lockdowns and on April 20, it was announced that the briefings would be scrapped entirely, with Stratton instead becoming the spokesperson for the COP26 summit that was held in Glasgow in November 2021. In this role, she made comments that a diesel car suited her lifestyle better than an electric car, that rinsing plates prior to putting them in the dishwasher would help the environment and that the public should join the Green Party in order to combat the climate crisis. During the conference, The Guardian reported she stayed in the background and had an unclear role.
She has authored her book Muhajababes. She attended Chiswick Community School and Latymer Upper School, an independent school in West London, before studying at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where she read archaeology and anthropology.
Allegra Stratton Age
She was born on April 10, 1980, in Nottingham and brought up in Chiswick, London, United Kingdom.
Allegra Stratton Husband
She is married to James Forsyth, political editor of The Spectator magazine. The couple has two children and lives in Canonbury, North London. Future Chancellor Rishi Sunak was the best man at their wedding in 2011, and they and Sunak are godparents to each other’s children.
Allegra Stratton Children
The couple has two children, Vaughn and Xanthe, and live in Canonbury, North London. Future Chancellor Rishi Sunak was the best man at their wedding in 2011, and they and Sunak are godparents to each other’s children.
Allegra Stratton Family
She is one of four children of a translator father and textile artist mother. She was named after Allegra Byron, the daughter of the poet Lord Byron.
Allegra Stratton Resignation
On December 7, 2021, ITV News released a video, in which Stratton and other Downing Street staff – during a mock press conference on December 22, 2020 – made joking references to a Christmas gathering in 10 Downing Street four days earlier on December 18, 2020. In the leaked 47-second clip, filmed from the Downing Street Press Briefing Room, Stratton and other Downing Street staff joked about the “imaginary party” being just “cheese and wine” and a “business meeting”, with “no social distancing”.
BBC News reported that the event had “several dozen” attendees, and that “party games were played, food and drink were served, and the party went on past midnight”. At the time of the alleged party, London was under tier 3 lockdown restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The day after, Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized for the video at Prime Minister’s Questions, describing himself as furious about it, but continued to deny that a party had taken place and declared that an investigation would be undertaken by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case. Three hours later, Stratton resigned from her position as government spokesperson for the COP26 summit.
Allegra Stratton Instagram
Her social media accounts are currently unavailable.
