Trevor Kavanagh

Early life and career

Kavanagh was educated at Reigate Grammar School before leaving school at 17 to work for newspapers in Surrey and later Hereford.

In 1965, he emigrated to Australia, working on several newspapers. After a short stint back in the United Kingdom working for the Bristol Evening Post, Kavanagh returned to Australia to work for the Sydney Daily Mirror (in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. stable) on the political desk.

The Sun

In 1978, he returned to the UK more permanently, taking a job with The Sun. He was named as political editor in 1983.

In January 2004, Kavanagh claimed a huge scoop. An unnamed source telephoned Kavanagh with details of the Hutton Inquiry the night before it was officially published. Kavanagh was provided with accurate details of the report and published them ahead of the official release. He was however less accurate on 4 June 2009. Speaking on BBC 5Live he asserted that Gordon Brown would be out of office the next week. Shortly afterwards, he was named as the eighth most influential person in the British media - behind his proprietor Murdoch, but ahead of his editor, Rebekah Wade.

He covered his last UK General Election as political editor in May 2005. In December 2005, it was announced that he was to "move upstairs" in the New Year to the post of associate editor, with the job of political editor going to his long-serving deputy, George Pascoe-Watson.

In February 2017 the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) found that a column by Kavanagh published in The Sun about allegedly false refugee claims was factually inaccurate. The adjudication by IPSO described Kavanagh's inaccuarcies as creating "a significantly misleading impression."

In August 2017 The Sun published a column by Kavanagh which questioned what actions British society should take to deal with "The Muslim Problem". Kavanagh cited an opinion piece by Labour Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities Sarah Champion MP several days previously as a reason that it was "now acceptable" to describe Muslims as a "specific rather than cultural problem". It was said that the column used language reminiscient of Nazi propaganda and Nazi phrases. A joint complaint was made to IPSO by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Tell MAMA and Faith Matters. A statement by the groups said "The printing of the phrase 'The Muslim Problem' – particularly with the capitalisation and italics for emphasis – in a national newspaper sets a dangerous precedent, and harks back to the use of the phrase 'The Jewish Problem in the last century." A cross-party group of over 100 MPs from the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens subsequently signed a letter to the editor of The Sun demanding action over the column. The letter stated the MPs "were truly outraged by the hate and bigotry" in Kavanagh's column.

Personal life

He is married and lives in London. Kavanagh has two sons and three grandchildren.