Danielle Sheridan

With the world at war, defence reporting has never been more critical.

At the start of this year, Danielle Sheridan exclusively revealed that the Head of the Army was to deliver a controversial speech warning that, due to the dwindling size of the Armed Forces, the British public would be called up to fight should the country become embroiled in a conflict.

Journalists had been blocked from watching General Sir Patrick Sanders, the Chief of the General Staff until June, give the speech, in the hope that it would go unreported. Yet Danielle uncovered this.

The story created a media storm and was picked up around the world. Soon members of the British public were debating if they would fight for their country – a conversation not had seriously since the Cold War.

Danielle’s story forced the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who was unaware of the contents of the speech, to publicly rule out conscription. A mere four months later, in a major election announcement, he pledged to bring back National Service, in what was seen as a direct response to General Sanders’ stark warning about the state of the Armed Forces - something that would have never been known if Danielle had not uncovered it. Her exclusive story received over 5,700 comments online and generated 600,000 page views, 10 times higher than the average news story. It also remains in the top 60 articles of the year for page views among a field of more than 50,000 articles published this year.

Danielle has continued to shine a light on how under-resourced the UK’s military is. She revealed that the Royal Navy has so few sailors it was forced to scrap two warships to staff its new class of frigates. It generated 2,500 comments online and was another embarrassing blow for the Ministry of Defence.

With the Forces facing a retention and recruitment crisis, this reporting further highlighted how under prepared Britain would be in the event of war: a genuine prospect in the near future.

Reporting on defence means travelling to warzones as well as focusing on the British military. In Kyiv earlier this year, Danielle exclusively interviewed Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, who told her how Vladimir Putin’s illegal war had pushed her “close to psychological burnout”. Again, the story was picked up internationally. In a candid discussion, she spoke of the struggles of maintaining a brave face for her country and her children, and of how her fears had caused her to wake in the middle of the night feeling that she couldn't cope. The interview, filmed for The Telegraph, has been viewed about 25,000 times on YouTube, and showed Danielle’s ability to produce agenda-setting journalism combining video and print. Viewer’s comments praised Danielle’s interview for its “authentic” and “moving” approach. Danielle’s reporting has a powerfully humane quality. People feel encouraged to confide in her, whether they be major figures on the world stage, or servicemen and women in the Armed Forces.