From striking revelations about the Prime Minister’s gifts and freebies to fresh scrutiny over the Royal Family’s property portfolio, 2024 was a big year for groundbreaking journalism. These exclusives didn’t just make headlines – they shaped national conversations, held those in power to account, and drove real change.
The Pagefield Awards ‘Scoop of the Year’ category celebrates the journalists and news outlets that went the extra mile to uncover the truth. These nominees have demonstrated unwavering dedication to investigative reporting, backing their work with solid evidence, meticulous research, and a strong sense of journalistic integrity.
Great journalism isn’t just about breaking a story first – it’s also about the impact it makes. And this year’s nominees have certainly done that.
Here are this year’s nominees for Scoop of the Year:
Pippa Crerar, The Guardian
Crerar’s scoop that Conservative candidate and PPS to the Prime Minister, Craig Williams, had placed a £100 bet on the date of the election three days before Sunak announced the general election to the public was a watershed event. Not only did the Gambling Commission open an inquiry, further allegations and admissions of political betting were made across the major political parties and the story became a defining moment of the election in public memory.
Cathy Newman, Channel 4 News
The investigation into John Smyth’s alleged abuse has been eight years of work, with Newman having received a tip-off in the post in 2016 that led her to uncover the truth. That work led to the publication of an inquiry in 2024, triggering the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury after it came to light that he had been alerted about the alleged abuse years before. Newman not only exposed the original story of Smyth’s alleged abuse but secured an exclusive interview with Welby following the leak of the report.
James Beal, The Times
The Times used undercover reporting to find that people going door to door for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity had been taught pressure-selling techniques. The exposé revealed how trainees – working on commission instead of an hourly wage – were taught to use psychological motivators and pre-empt objections on the doorstep.
Following the revelations, the charity self-reported to the Fundraising Regulator, which opened an investigation, and reported the findings to the Charity Commission as a serious incident.
Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire, The Sunday Times
Pogrund and Maguire’s scoop that Sir Keir Starmer’s biggest personal donor had a security pass to Downing Street helped define the early days of the Labour Government, causing a significant political headache for the new Government. The disclosure led to further investigations of Labour’s relationship with donors, with accusations levelled at the cabinet of perpetuating the same “sleaze” they vowed to remove from UK politics.
Sky News & Tortoise Media
The Westminster Accounts interactive database allows users to search for information about the earnings and donations declared by any MP, political party, an all-party parliamentary group, or donor, since the 2019 general election.
By programmatically collecting and analysing thousands of public records to create this extensive record of financial interests in Westminster from December 2019 onwards, the project revealed the Prime Minister had declared more gifts and freebies than any other MP, with his total in gifts, benefits, and hospitality topping £100,000 since December 2019.
Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott, Katie Tarrant, Tom Calver, George Willoughby, Narottam Medhora, Heather Elliott, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches
The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches teams uncovered every plot of land owned by the ancient Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall and the business deals with the NHS, schools and military that help fund the Royal Family.
In a five-month investigation, they uncovered business contracts and discovered how the Duchies make millions of pounds a year by charging government departments, councils, businesses, mining companies, and the general public a series of commercial rents and feudal levies on land largely seized by medieval monarchs.
The revelations led to wide-scale media coverage and some backlash against the royals, with political figures criticising the monarchy for lack of transparency over its finances.
