Company designs Downing Street’s new £2.6m media briefing room...for less than £2,600

A business storage solutions company claims to have recreated Boris Johnson’s new £2.6million media hub in Downing Street for less than 1 per cent of the cost to the taxpayer.

Images published by ITV News on Monday gave the first look at the new White House-style briefing room in No 9 Downing Street, which has been kitted out with cameras, rows of chairs for journalists, and four Union Jack flags arranged prominently behind a lectern.

The briefings are set to be fronted by the Prime Minister’s spokesperson and former ITV News journalist, Allegra Stratton.

It is believed the idea was the brainchild of former director of communications, Lee Cain, who left Downing Street in December.

Social media users were quick to mock the images, which featured a Henry vacuum cleaner seemingly abandoned at the side of the stage.

On Tuesday Gloucester-based company BiGDUG, which provides home and business storage solutions, recreated an image of the room using its products, with the total cost coming to less than 1% of the government’s spend.

From chairs priced at just £26 each to a £30 plinth, BiGDUG’s version totals £2,013:

Polly Maclennan, Public Relations Manager at BiGDUG said: “People on social media have been quick to joke about the images released by the government of the new media briefing room and why it cost so much.

“Considering we have put together an equally impressive collection of chairs, staging and flooring, we know it’s possible to do for a fraction of the cost!”

Labour said of the real briefing room “we were expecting something a bit more impressive” given the sums spent on the long-delayed project.

The images emerged as the HuffPost website reported that the renovations were carried out by Megahertz, a company owned by a Moscow-based firm that has carried out technical work for state-controlled broadcaster Russia Today.

Downing Street has been contacted for comment.