‘Telegraph’ Assistant Editor To Reveal All About MPs And Their Expenses
Andrew Pierce, assistant editor of the ‘Daily Telegraph’.
21 October 2009
One of the key journalists from the newspaper that lifted the lid on MPs’ expenses is to give Birmingham Press Club members an insight into how the scandal was exposed.
Andrew Pierce, assistant editor of the ‘Daily Telegraph’, is to be guest of honour at the Club’s annual Christmas lunch at the Radisson on 16 December.
Andrew, a former ‘Birmingham Post and Mail’ reporter, will reveal how the ‘Telegraph’ went about its exclusive of the decade, exposing how MPs ripped off the taxpayer for such items as duck ponds and moats, and also tried to cash in via ‘flipping’ their main addresses from home to home.
The expose – apparently prompted by a whistleblower in Whitehall who was outraged at the antics of the so-called ‘Right Honourable’ gentlemen – was a sensation when it emerged in the ‘Telegraph’ earlier this year.
The circulation of the ‘Telegraph’ received a massive boost, as revelation followed revelation, much to the dismay of several newspapers who had been offered the chance by the whistleblower to buy the story.
Even now, MPs are trying to find out who the whistleblower is, as they attempt to come to terms with the stories that brought a dramatic halt to their expenses gravy train.
Andrew Pierce, 46, a former judge of the Birmingham Media Awards, became a journalist on leaving school in 1979. He joined the Gloucestershire Echo, before moving on to the ‘Post and Mail’ in 1983.
After a spell as a freelance on a number of Fleet Street titles, he joined ‘The Times’ in 1988, where he was variously a diarist, news reporter and parliamentary correspondent.
Between 1996 and 1998 he was lobby correspondent for the ‘Times’ and in 2006 he joined the ‘Telegraph’ as assistant editor.
As well as newspapers, Andrew has been a regular on TV and radio, including Radio 5 Live, LBC and GMTV. He is a also a frequent panellist on BBC’s ‘Question Time’, and also reviews the next day’s newspapers on Sky News.
In December 2007 ‘Pink News’ described Andrew as the sixth most powerful gay man in British politics, describing him as a “ball of giggles, gossip, scandal and kinetic energy – Pierce is an interesting mix of rebel and gay establishment figure”.
He said: “I’ve got very strong connections with the media in the Midlands, so it will be great to visit the region to renew old acquaintances and reveal how we set about reporting the expenses scandal.”
Birmingham Press Club chairman John Lamb said: “It’s a major coup for the Club to get Andrew Pierce to talk about what could be described as the scoop of the century.
“He is an old friend of the Press Club, having become the first Fleet Street journalist to judge our media awards scheme in 2004.
“I am certain it will be absolutely riveting to see how the ‘Telegraph’ handled the expenses scandal, the ramifications of which are still being felt today.”
The Christmas lunch event featuring Andrew Pierce will take place on 16 December. Further details will be announced nearer the time.
