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Political Publication of the Year

The Daily Telegraph

THE JUDGES SAY The Daily Telegraph was the jury’s unanimous choice for Political Publication of the Year, because of its key role in exposing details of MPs’ expenses. Through its investigation and carefully timed revelations the paper helped to orchestrate the political story of the year, drawing attention to the systematic abuse taxpayer-funded expenses system by a significant number of MPs.

The Daily Telegraph’s exposure in May of questionable expenses claims by MPs has sent shock waves reverberating throughout Westminster and the rest of the political system. Moats and duck houses have become the new currency in political debate and it is still hard to assess how far the scandal uncovered by The Telegraph’s investigative team will alter the way parliament operates and the way MPs are seen by the electorate and perhaps even the constitution itself.

The initial three-week series of front page exposés was engineered by a small team of reporters working in a ‘bunker’ separated from the paper’s main news room for reasons of security. They carefully examined the expenses claims of every single MP, beginning at the top, with the cabinet and shadow cabinet; working round the clock to ensure that no detail was missed. It was a painstaking process involving careful detective work to uncover secrets such as the practice of ‘flipping’, where MPs switched the designation of primary and secondary residences in order to obtain a financial advantage, or payments made at public expense on mortgages that did not exist.

Gordon Brown described the furore over expenses as ‘the biggest parliamentary scandal for two centuries’. It led directly to the resignation of the Speaker, Michael Martin, the first such departure from the office for three centuries. Politicians from all three major parties have unanimously condemned the practices that they themselves and their colleagues engaged in. The story has been given a new lease of life following the summer recess after an audit of MPs’ expenses conducted by Sir Thomas Legg resulted in demands that significant sums of money should be paid back.

The Daily Telegraph investigation has shaken British political life to its foundations and has led to calls for a wholesale overhaul of the political system, including imposing term limits on MPs and changing the electoral system to tackle public anger over perceptions that many MPs are sitting on a goldmine in safe parliamentary seats. With its skilful and prolonged exposure of politicians’ worst habits the Daily Telegraph has set in motion a debate over the future of parliament that is unlikely to go away for a very long time.