Gabriel Pogrund

Gabriel Pogrund secured the scoops that sparked the first political crisis of Sir Keir Starmer’s administration – that he faced an investigation after failing to disclose that Labour peer and donor Lord Alli covered the cost of a personal shopper, clothes and alterations for his wife, and that Alli had a government pass. The stories dominated the front pages of every newspaper and broadcast news, and were quickly followed by other disclosures about Alli’s influence – which led to the government changing the rules on ministerial gifts and hospitality.

Based on an accidentally leaked spreadsheet of a rental car’s GPS data and months of data journalism, Pogrund provided a minute-by-minute account of the events leading up to the previously unexplained death of teenager Zac Brettler, exposing serious shortcomings in police investigations. And he broke the story that former prime minister Boris Johnson secretly flew to Venezuela for unofficial talks with its autocratic leader Nicolás Maduro to lobby for a rapprochement with the West – which he later revealed would have benefited the hedge fund that secretly paid for the trip and which held hundreds of millions in the country’s sovereign debt. “Writing with flair and tenacity, Pogrund consistently delivers agenda-setting exclusives,” said the judges.