David Cameron’s management of interest in his family’s finances has been a case study in how not to handle the media during a crisis.
And his series of mistakes is proving costly to his reputation with calls for his resignation and the hashtag #resigncameron currently trending on Twitter.
The Prime Minister’s eventual admission late yesterday that he had benefited from a controversial fund set up by his late father came at the end of almost a week of intense speculation.
Instead of tackling the crisis head on at the start, Mr Cameron and his advisers issued a series of vague and incomplete statements which only prompted more questions and greater scrutiny.
On Monday Downing Street had tried to shut down the story by saying that his father’s offshore fund identified in the Panama Papers was ‘a private matter’, which is as bad as saying ‘no comment’ and something of a schoolboy error.
Predictably this response only added to controversy and the Prime Minister’s team subsequently released three further statements.
But none of these tackled the obvious and fundamental point of whether his family had benefited from offshore investments in the past.
Finally, yesterday evening, at the fifth time of asking, he made a full statement about his financial affairs in an interview with ITV News and admitted that he had profited by more than £30,000 in an offshore tax haven.
The resulting press coverage today will have not made happy reading at the Downing Street breakfast table.
So what should he have done differently?
The key to success in the vast majority of crisis media management situations is to be open, proactive and act quickly.
Getting messages, and more importantly the facts, out quickly shows that you are aware of the story, are taking it seriously and are in control. It will help prevent the spread of rumour and speculation.
Facts in this case seemed to have to be dragged from Mr Cameron and there was a clear reluctance to respond to the issue. This put him on the back foot and saw him face ever increasing amounts of questions from journalists.
While it may feel tempting to try to cover-up bad news it really is an unwise move. You don’t need to be a journalist to know that if someone says it is a ‘private matter’ they have something to hide. And inevitably the details will emerge as the pressure and intrigue mount.
In his TV interview Mr Cameron said he wanted to be ‘as clear about the past, about the present, about the future, because frankly I don’t want to have anything to hide’ – a good statement, but one which would have been much more effective if it had come at the start of the controversy rather than following a series of partial statements.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 30 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers. Click here to find out more about our highly practical Media Skills courses and presentation training.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for more hints, tips and blogs.
