David Hencke: The Journalist Who Made Us All Better

Byline Times tips its hat with love and gratitude to our acclaimed investigative reporter who has died aged 79 of liver cancer, writes Mark Conrad

‘He loved journalism far more than he loved being a journalist – and that distinction mattered’. Photo courtesy of Anne Margaret Awla

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If you bumped into David Hencke in Westminster, there was a fair chance you’d end up disappearing into a nearby café or pub for an hour.

Officially, we’d be discussing the latest political developments after some worthy – but sometimes dull – parliamentary committee. In reality, we’d be talking about journalism. Stories, Westminster gossip worth pursuing, and how to use the worthy material to get closer to the truth.

Long before I was fortunate enough to call David a friend, I knew him by reputation.

As a student, and later as a young reporter, I’d devoured his investigations for the Guardian alongside the remarkable work of David Leigh and David Pallister. Their reporting on Cash for Questions, Jonathan Aitken, and so many other scandals didn’t simply produce great exclusives. It changed British politics.

Meeting David should have been intimidating. Instead, I met one of the warmest and most generous journalists I’ve known, and he became a long-term friend and collaborator.

Despite his formidable reputation, David always found time for people. Whether you were a Fleet Street veteran or a young reporter finding your feet, there was always another coffee, another conversation, another idea or lead worth pursuing. He became something of a mentor. The truth is, he became that mentor to many of us. Quietly, almost without trying, he made journalists around him better.

For years, I thought David had an extraordinary collection of contacts. Over time, I realised that David didn’t collect contacts. He collected confidence.

Politicians, public servants, campaigners, whistleblowers, and journalists trusted him because he listened more than he spoke. Others heard Westminster gossip. David heard the first loose thread of an investigation – then patiently pulled at it until the truth emerged.

Former Guardian Editor Peter Preston made an inspired decision when he sent David into the Westminster Lobby. Most editors wanted their political correspondents to cultivate ministers and report the daily briefings from the machinery of government. But Preston quietly sent one of Britain’s finest investigative reporters into the very heart of Westminster instead.

Over a coffee, David would occasionally admit – usually with a mischievous smile – that he enjoyed the irony. The Lobby gave him something more valuable than privileged access: it gave him a part in the conversations behind the politics.

David was never especially interested in Westminster theatre. He wanted to know what was really happening behind it. He was the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Not because there was anything false about his warmth – there wasn’t – but because behind the affable smile was a relentless investigative reporter whose instinct was always to ask one more question, find one more document, and follow one more lead.

His record speaks for itself.

‘Cash for Questions’ became shorthand for the sleaze that engulfed John Major’s Government and changed British politics. His revelation of Peter Mandelson’s undisclosed home loan forced the resignation of one of New Labour’s most senior ministers. Two decades later, he was still winning awards for exposing Whitehall’s tax arrangements – an investigation that began with a mere fragment of Westminster gossip.

He later helped expose historical child sexual abuse at a Richmond care home (which led to arrests and prosecutions); revealed the Dame Janet Smith report into Jimmy Savile before publication; became one of the most persistent champions of 3.5 million 1950s women whose pension rights had been removed; and, through Byline Times, continued doing what he had always done: holding power to account.

The remarkable thing wasn’t that David broke one great story. It was that he kept breaking them for decades.

His reputation extended well beyond journalism. Politicians from every major party might not have welcomed David’s questions – particularly if he was investigating them – but they trusted his journalism. They knew a David Hencke story had been exhaustively researched, evidenced, and tested.

By the time we worked together, our conversations had become less about Westminster gossip and more about investigations. We shared ideas, documents, the occasional source, and countless chats. I benefited enormously from David’s experience, but I was never under the illusion that I was unique. He treated everybody that way.

James Chapman, the Daily Mail’s former Political Editor, has tweeted warmly about David’s influence on his early career. Former colleagues Frederika Whitehead, Alex Varley-Winter, and Fiona O’Cleirigh would say the same. So would longer-term friends and collaborators such as Francis Beckett.

David left behind more than great investigations. He left behind better journalists.

He loved journalism far more than he loved being a journalist – and that distinction mattered. He could be relentless, but never reckless. Every fact had to stand up because David understood that journalism only earns the public’s trust when it subjects itself to the same standards of evidence that it demands of those it investigates.

Many journalists of David’s generation might reasonably have decided they’d earned a quieter life when they took ‘semi-retirement’ after leaving Fleet Street. But David had other ideas.

He backed the vision of Peter Jukes, Stephen Colegrave, and Hardeep Matharu and a then tiny start-up called Byline Times because he still believed investigative journalism mattered. He saw another opportunity to ask difficult questions, scrutinise those in power, and encourage a new generation of investigative reporters. And Byline Times has thrived through that reputation.

That curiosity never left him. I once received an email from David while he and his wife Margaret were on a round-the-world cruise. But it wasn’t a postcard from some idyllic corner of the world. It was a potential Byline Times investigation.

When we next spoke, I laughed. “Weren’t you and Margaret supposed to be wandering around a beautiful temple somewhere?”

“Oh yes,” David replied matter-of-factly. “We’d done that already. We’d disembarked, visited, had dinner… and then we were back on the boat with a story.”

That was David.

He and Margaret, herself a formidable journalist, shared a lifelong passion for travel. They loved talking about the places they’d explored together.

After Margaret’s death a few years ago and his recent diagnosis, David moved to be closer to his daughter Anne and his grandchildren. He was so incredibly proud of them all. Behind the byline that terrified governments and senior officials for decades was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather who treasured his family.

British journalism has lost one of its finest investigative reporters. Many of us have lost a trusted colleague, a mentor, and a generous friend.

David spent his career holding powerful people to account. Yet he never behaved as though he were powerful himself.

That humanity was perhaps his finest scoop of all.

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The Lobby Remembers David Hencke

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“David was a remarkable journalist. Unusually creative in a very good way. And very kind. He did important work uncovering serious fraud and corruption.”

Robert Peston, Political Editor, ITV News

“David Hencke was a true Fleet Street legend. He worked for the Guardian for more than 30 years and was responsible for breaking some of the biggest political stories of the time. David became the most feared journalist in Westminster because of his acute nose for political scandal and wrongdoing. He worked with an enthusiasm and energy that inspired colleagues and rivals over an impressively long and important career.”

Katharine Viner, Editor in Chief, the Guardian

“One of the remarkable things about David was that he had no malice towards anyone, even the many rogues and crooks he exposed. He could be critical of them, but mostly he found their villainy quite funny. He was a really lovely man. He would also help anyone – including his rivals. (The Guardian used to send him back to HQ when he had a top scoop because they were worried he would blurt out the details to someone in the Burma Road). But it was also a different era back then. I remember when Hencke was the first person who thought he had ended Mandelson’s career, about 30 years ago. The most remarkable thing about that story was that in those days you only needed to borrow £380,000 to buy a flat in Notting Hill.”

Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent, the Guardian

“David’s weakness as a journalist was his inability to keep a scoop to himself. On one of the big sleaze scandals in the 90s, his Guardian colleagues hid him in an MP’s office to stop him telling Lobby colleagues about a story he’d got. Instead he told the MP, who passed it on to his Labour bosses. David and I once got a nice exclusive line out of a committee chair, and in the time it took us to get back to Room 15, he told two different groups of reporters about it.”

Rob Hutton, Parliamentary sketch writer, The Critic

“As a student journalist nearly 25 years ago, I sat beside him at a dinner. He was extremely encouraging, helpful, and even invited me to his book launch a few months after that dinner, which was the first book launch I ever went to and introduced me to a world I never knew, that of MPs, Lobby types, and many others. I will always be grateful to David, who was helpful at various times since then. He didn’t need to be nice to me as a lowly student journalist, but he was.”

Peter Cardwell, political presenter, Talk TV/Radio and former government special advisor

“He was the Whitehall Editor at the Guardian when I was on The Yorkshire Post and worked alongside him in the same room. He was completely mad but a brilliant investigative journalist who at that time exposed a huge scandal over a loan to Rover that the then Government had tried to cover up. He was also the kindest, humblest, and most passionate of journalists. I learned a lot from him and not just about journalism.”

Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor, the Daily Telegraph

“David was an exemplary reporter and such a nice guy.”

Andrew Murray, Political Editor, Morning Star

“[David] was incredibly kind and helpful to me when I first started out in this place. Always keen to share great tips and stories. RIP.”

Lorin Bell-Cross, Political Editor, The Jewish Chronicle

“David was a great journalist, but also one of those people who treated even the lowliest hack as an equal. I remember this clearly when I was starting out. Powered by a real sense of nailing wrongdoing as well. He was quietly relentless despite a charming eccentricity. Well into his 50s, he used to corner me in the corridor when he spotted something no one else had seen in some papers, bursting with excitement that he had found a new Watergate, trusting that I wouldn’t steal it but full of the enthusiasm you normally see in reporters less than half his age. A true one-off.”

Tim Shipman, Political Editor, the Spectator

“A brilliant journalist. A colleague has described him as ‘the perfect caricature Guardian investigative reporter’. When in hospital a few weeks ago, he emailed: ‘To prevent me getting bored, I have written up the NAO report on royal accommodation for Byline Times from my hospital bed’.”

Henry Dyer, Investigations Correspondent, the Guardian

“A lovely man and a good friend to all of us in the Lobby.”

Peter Knowles, Westminster Correspondent, C-SPAN

“David was very generous with his time whenever he was passing through the upper gallery. I remember being stunned when I looked up his name online after a long chat and saw what he’d done in his career. Such a lovely guy, treated everyone as a colleague no matter their status or how long they’d been in the Lobby.”

Craig Munro, Politics Reporter, Metro

“What a lovely man and a total legend of our trade. An absolute master of the scoop and such a kind man to anyone starting out in the Lobby, as he was to me when I started two decades ago. One of the great Lobby journalists.”

Chris Hope, Political Editor and Head of Politics, GB News