David Hencke

Career

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

In 1994 he was named What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year for his investigation which 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.

In 1998 he 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.

In 2012, Hencke was named 'Political Journalist of the Year' at the British Journalism Awards.

In 2014, Hencke was longlisted for the Orwell prize for political journalism.

Elm Guest House child abuse investigation

It was David Hencke who passed Tom Watson evidence that child abuse had taken place at Elm Guest House in Barnes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tom Watson then raised the allegations in parliament and the police subsequently launched a scoping exercise under the name "Operation Fairbank". Five Metropolitan Police officers considered allegations relating to Elm Guest House, and other allegations gathered by Watson. Later a full-scale criminal investigation specifically addressing allegations relating to Elm Guest House was launched under the name "Operation Fernbridge."

Books