Caroline Wheeler

Caroline has a peerless track record of delivering exclusive scoops, uncovering agenda-setting stories the state often does not want the public to know. She balances her investigative “digging” whilst also maintaining extraordinary access to the highest echelons of government, conducting interviews with the most powerful politicians in the country and often being the first to report details of new government policies, including seismic tax changes in the budget.

Caroline’s work this year included the revelation that Rosie Duffield was resigning as a Labour MP. She blamed Labour’s “cruel” and “unnecessary” policies and the freebies row that was engulfing the party. Duffield became the fastest MP to jump ship after a general election in modern political history. The story, which sent shockwaves through Westminster, led to the prime minister shaking-up his top team, which included the departure of his top aide Sue Gray - another story Caroline was the first to report.

Caroline also revealed how the sitting MP Andrew Bridgen had been “radicalised” by an anti-Vax “cult”. In a searingly honest interview with his ex-wife, Nevena Bridgen, Caroline pieced together how Bridgen had been “captured” by Covid conspiracy theorists, eventually choosing to abandon her and their son to pursue his “anti-vax” mission. Following the revelations, Penny Mordaunt, the then leader of the House of Commons, introduced support for MPs to prevent them from being manipulated by conspiracy theorists.

Yet Caroline’s proudest achievement to date has been her relentless pursuit for the victims of the NHS contaminated blood scandal. Her 23-year crusade ended this year with Caroline devising and leading a high-profile campaign in The Sunday Times in the run up to the publication of the public inquiry’s report into the scandal. The “Bloody Disgrace” campaign, calling for a full and fair settlement for the victims of the tragedy, won the support of more than 250 MPs and peers, as well as former prime minister Boris Johnson, ex-Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies and the daughter of the late Body Shop founder, Dame Anita Roddick, who was one of thousands of victims to lose their lives.

During the course of the campaign, Caroline revealed devastating details of how children were experimented on by doctors without their consent, knowingly infecting them with deadly diseases, including HIV and hepatitis. She was also the first journalist to reveal the full tragedy of Treloar’s, the school for disabled children in Hampshire, where almost 90 pupils died after receiving contaminated blood products. The public pressure that Caroline’s campaign exerted forced ministers to spend more than £10bn on a compensation package - a decision which wiped out Jeremy Hunt’s ability to deliver further tax cuts and ultimately led to Rishi Sunak’s decision to hold an early general election.

Caroline’s work, which was instrumental in bringing about the public inquiry in 2017, won plaudits from across the House of Commons and concluded with a live press conference broadcast on the BBC and other media platforms on the afternoon of the public inquiry’s findings.