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David Hencke

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David Hencke (/ˈhɛŋkiː/ HENK-ee[1]) is a British investigative journalist and writer, named "Political Journalist of the Year" at the 2012 British Press Awards.

Career

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Hencke began as a student journalist in 1965 at Warwick University as editor of its first university newspaper,Giblet, while studying history and politics. In 1968 he worked for the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph, then in 1971 joined the Western Mail in Cardiff and in 1973 the Times Higher Education Supplement.[2]

Hencke joined The Guardian in 1976,[3] becoming the newspaper's Westminster Correspondent in 1986. He has won numerous awards for his political coverage.[4]

In 1994 he was named What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year for his investigation that uncovered the "Cash-for-questions affair". His exposé led to the bankruptcy of Ian Greer Associates, one of the country’s biggest lobbying companies, and the resignations of two junior ministers, Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith.[5][6]

In 1998, Hencke won "Scoop of the Year" for a story that caused the first resignation of Peter Mandelson, over a secret undeclared £373,000 home loan given to him by fellow Treasury minister, Geoffrey Robinson.

In 2009, Hencke took voluntary redundancy from The Guardian after 33 years. He works as the Westminster correspondent for Tribune and an investigative journalist for the (now closed) Exaro website.[6]

In 2012, Hencke was named "Political Journalist of the Year" at the British Press Awards.[7][8]

In 2014, Hencke was longlisted for the Orwell Prize for political journalism.[9]

Hencke manages his blog Westminster Confidential on which he publishes "news, views, investigations and much more",[10] and regularly contributes to Byline Times.[11]

Libel

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Former MP John Hemming (Liberal Democrats), who had been falsely accused of abuse in an article in the Exaro website by Hencke, succeeded in a libel action against him in January 2019, resulting in Hencke and Graham Wilmer of the Lantern Project paying over £10,000 in compensation for the false allegations.[12] In August 2019, Staffordshire Police confirmed that they were investigating whether Hemming's accuser, Esther Baker, had misled detectives.[13]

Books

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  • David Hencke (1976) Colleges in Crisis
  • David Hencke and Francis Beckett (2004) The Blairs and their court
  • David Hencke (2004) Marching to the Fault Line, which examined the 1984 miners' strike
  • David Hencke and Francis Beckett (2005) The Survivor: Tony Blair in peace and war

References

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  1. ^ "David Hencke LIVESTREAM 5pm 12th Jan". YouTube. 12 January 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  2. ^ "My Career so far..." David Hencke. 7 November 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  3. ^ "David Hencke | the Guardian". TheGuardian.com.
  4. ^ Stephen Brook (19 June 2009). "Duncan Campbell and David Hencke among those leaving Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  5. ^ "Chronology - How the scandal unfolded", The Guardian, 22 December 1999]
  6. ^ a b William Turvill (19 February 2013). "David Hencke: Leveson would have 'seriously damaged' cash-for-questions investigation". Press Gazette. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
  7. ^ "David Walsh scoops Journalist of the Year win at British Journalism Awards", Press Gazette, 4 December 2012.
  8. ^ William Turvill (22 March 2013). "How David Hencke exposed Whitehall tax avoidance scandal". Press Gazette. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  9. ^ "Investigative site Exaro News among nominations for Orwell Prize political journalism award", Press Gazette, 26 March 2014.
  10. ^ "Westminster Confidential". Westminster Confidential. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  11. ^ "Byline Times: David Hencke". Archived from the original on 26 June 2019.
  12. ^ Evans, Martin (27 January 2019). "Former MP falsely accused of abuse wins libel action". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  13. ^ "Esther Baker: Police investigate woman who said MPs abused her". BBC News. 14 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
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