Who is Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who broke an NDA to leak Matt Hancock’s WhatsApps?
Isabel Oakeshott has admitted she didn’t tell Matt Hancock she was going to leak 100,000 of his WhatsApp messages before sharing them with the Daily Telegraph.
The Brexiteer journalist and political commentator has passed on more than 2.3 million words from exchanges the former health secretary and his colleagues had about COVID policy at the height of the pandemic.
Her leak broke the non-disclosure agreement she signed that promised she would only use the messages on background to ghost write Mr Hancock’s book, Pandemic Diaries.
She has vehemently defended her decision, which she claims is “overwhelmingly” in the public interest – as she believes the inquiry into the government response to the pandemic will take far too long to achieve genuine justice.
But her reported breach of contract has led to criticism from Conservative MPs and journalists – particularly in light of other controversies she has been involved in.
From King Charles’s school to political journalist
Ms Oakeshott was born in Westminster in the mid-1970s before moving to Scotland.
She attended fee-paying schools St George’s in Edinburgh and Gordonstoun in Moray – where both King Charles and his father the Duke of Edinburgh went.
After graduating with a history degree from the University of Bristol she moved back to Scotland to begin her journalism career in local newspapers.
In the early 2000s she moved to London to be the Evening Standard’s health correspondent.
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Three years later she took her first steps into political journalism and joined the Sunday Times, where in 2010 she was made political editor and in 2011 she was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Press Awards.
A year-long stint as the Daily Mail’s political editor-at-large followed before jobs at GB News presenting her show The Briefing with Isabel Oakeshott in 2021 and as TalkTV’s international editor from mid-2022.
She has three children and was previously married to the American Nigel Rosser. She has since been in a long-term relationship with Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, formerly known as the Brexit Party.
Matt Hancock’s book is the 10th she has worked on.
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Following the publication of The Lockdown Files in The Telegraph, Mr Hancock accused Ms Oakeshott of a “massive betrayal and breach of trust”.
But many of his former Tory colleagues have questioned his decision to entrust her with the archive – even with legal protection.
In 2011 when she was working at The Sunday Times she agreed to write a story about Vicky Pryce – the ex-wife of former Liberal Democrat minister Chris Huhne, who Ms Pryce had separated from following an affair.
Ms Pryce told Ms Oakeshott she had taken points on her driving licence for a speeding offence Mr Huhne committed.
She discussed with Ms Oakeshott over email how they might report the story to discredit Mr Huhne.
But the front-page article that materialised led to the Crown Prosecution Service revisiting the incident, requesting the email exchanges, and ultimately both Ms Pryce and Mr Huhne being sentenced to eight months in prison for perverting the course of justice.
Isabel Oakeshott arrives at Southwark Crown Court for R v Huhne
In 2015 she co-authored a biography of then-prime minister David Cameron with the Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft.
He had felt let down by Mr Cameron, having donated millions to the 2015 election campaign only to be denied a top job in his coalition government.
The book, Call Me Dave, failed to have major success and was largely remembered for the claim Mr Cameron engaged in a sex act with a dead pig while at Oxford University.
He fiercely denied it and Ms Oakeshott later admitted she only had one source to back the allegation up.
“It’s my judgment that the MP was not making it up, although I accept there was a possibility he could have been slightly deranged,” she told a book festival audience.
As an ardent Brexiteer, in 2016 she helped write Arron Banks’s book The Bad Boys of Brexit on his account of the EU referendum.
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Hancock rejects COVID test claims
The Leave.EU founder gave her his texts and emails from the time, which Ms Oakeshott later published in the Sunday Times, revealing he had far more dealings with Russian officials than he had previously admitted.
Three years later in 2019 she wrote a series of articles in the Mail on Sunday that revealed the UK ambassador to the United States Sir Kim Darroch had described Donald Trump’s presidency as “inept” and “utterly dysfunctional”.
He was forced to resign, conceding his position had become untenable.
But following the saga there were claims the story had not been hers – and instead the work of a teenage freelance journalist called Steven Edginton – who was involved with the Brexit Party and had wanted to stay anonymous to avoid any repercussions.
Hancock and Oakeshott have ‘absolutely nothing in common’
During the pandemic, she quickly declared herself a lockdown-sceptic, claiming that outside of clinical environments face masks are merely “political” and “nothing to do with genuine infection control”.
After Mr Hancock’s lockdown-breaking affair with aide Gina Coladangelo forced him to resign, Ms Oakeshott worked with him on his memoir for a year.
She has claimed she wasn’t paid for her work, saying it was “richly rewarding in other ways”.
Matt Hancock and Isabel Oakeshott. Pic: Parsons Media
But soon after its publication in December last year, Ms Oakeshott wrote a piece for The Spectator alluding to her motives in co-authoring the book.
In it she admitted the pair have “almost nothing in common” and that they “fundamentally disagree” over how COVID should have been dealt with.
‘I broke NDA, but it wasn’t personal’
She hinted: “Journalists don’t only interrogate people they disagree with. Quite the reverse.
“What better way to find out what really happened… than to align myself with the key player?”
Mr Hancock says his leaked messages have been “spun to fit an anti-lockdown agenda” and denies he “ignored” advice to test all people entering care homes in England.
When asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if Ms Oakeshott warned the former minister about her plans to leak the messages, she said: “I didn’t tell him.”
She added in a statement: “Hard though it may be for him to believe, this isn’t about Matt Hancock, or indeed any other individual politician. Nor is it about me.
“We were all let down by the response to the pandemic and repeated unnecessary lockdowns.
“I make no apology whatsoever for acting in the national interest: the worst betrayal of all would be to cover up these truths.”
World
Body pulled from mine after police cut off supplies to ‘smoke out’ thousands of illegal miners
A body has been recovered from a South African mine after police cut off basic supplies in an effort to force around 4,000 illegal miners to resurface.
The body has emerged from the closed gold mine in the northwest town of Stilfontein a day after South Africa’s government said it would not help the illegal miners.
Around 20 people have surfaced from the mineshaft this week as police wait nearby to arrest all those appearing from underground.
It comes a day after a cabinet minister said the government was trying to “smoke them [the miners] out”.
The move is part of the police’s “Close the Hole” operation, whereby officers cut off supplies of food, water and other basic necessities to get those who have entered illegally to come out.
Local reports suggest the supply routes were cut off at the mine around two months ago, with relatives of the miners seen in the area as the stand-off continues.
Relatives of miners and community members wait at the mine shaft. Pic: AP
A decomposed body was brought up on Thursday, with pathologists on the scene, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said.
It comes after South African cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Wednesday that the government would not send any help to the illegal miners, known in the country as zama zamas, because they are involved in a criminal act.
“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped; criminals are to be prosecuted. We didn’t send them there,” Ms Ntshavheni said.
An aerial view of a mineshaft. Pic: AP
Senior police and defence officials are expected to visit the area on Friday to “reinforce the government’s commitment to bringing this operation to a safe and lawful conclusion”, according to a media advisory from the police.
In the last few weeks, over 1,000 miners have surfaced at various mines in South Africa’s North West province, where police have cut off supplies.
Many of the miners were reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going for weeks without basic supplies.
Illegal mining remains common in South Africa’s old gold-mining areas, with miners going into closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.
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Relatives of miners and community members wait near the mine shaft. Pic: AP
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The illegal miners are often from neighbouring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.
Their presence in closed mines has also created problems with nearby communities, which complain that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape.
Illegal mining groups are known to be heavily armed and disputes between rival groups sometimes result in fatal confrontations.
World
Ukrainian frontline commander warns: ‘The world is scared of Russia and losing is not only our problem’
In the courtyard of a farmhouse now home to soldiers of the Ukrainian army’s 47th mechanised brigade, I’m introduced to a weary-looking unit by their commander Captain Oleksandr “Sasha” Shyrshyn.
We are about 10km from the border with Russia, and beyond it lies the Kursk region Ukraine invaded in the summer – and where this battalion is now fighting.
The 47th is a crack fighting assault unit.
They’ve been brought to this area from the fierce battles in the country’s eastern Donbas region to bolster Ukrainian forces already here.
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The captain known by his men as ‘Genius’
In the summer, Ukraine launched an incursion into Russian territory, in Kursk
Captain Shyrshyn explains that among the many shortages the military has to deal with, the lack of infantry is becoming a critical problem.
Sasha is just 30 years old, but he is worldly-wise. He used to run an organisation helping children in the country’s east before donning his uniform and going to war.
He is famous in Ukraine and is regarded as one of the country’s top field commanders, who isn’t afraid to express his views on the war and how it’s being waged.
His nom de guerre is ‘Genius’, a nickname given to him by his men.
Captain Sasha Shyrshyn and Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay
‘Don’t worry, it’s not a minefield’
Sasha invited me to see one of the American Bradley fighting vehicles his unit uses.
We walk down a muddy lane before he says it’s best to go cross-country.
“We can go that way, don’t worry it’s not a minefield,” he jokes.
He leads us across a muddy field and into a forest where the vehicle is hidden from Russian surveillance drones that try to hunt both American vehicles and commanders.
Sasha shows me a picture of the house they had been staying in only days before – it was now completely destroyed after a missile strike.
Fortunately, neither he, nor any of his men, were there at the time.
“They target commanders,” he says with a smirk.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
‘The world is scared of Russia’
It takes me a moment or two to realise we are only a few steps away from the Bradley, dug in and well hidden beneath the trees.
The disguised American Bradley vehicle hidden in the forest
Sasha tells me the Bradley is the finest vehicle he has ever used.
A vehicle so good, he says, it’s keeping the Ukrainian army going in the face of Russia’s overwhelming numbers of soldiers.
He explains: “Almost all our work on the battlefield is cooperation infantry with the Bradley. So we use it for evacuations, for moving people from one place to another, as well as for fire-covering.
“This vehicle is very safe and has very good characteristics.”
The American Bradley fighting vehicle that Ukrainian soldiers have found vital in their efforts
Billions of dollars in military aid has been given to Ukraine by the United States, and this vehicle is one of the most valuable assets the US has provided.
Ukraine is running low on men to fight, and the weaponry it has is not enough, especially if it can’t fire long-range missiles into Russia itself – which it is currently not allowed to do.
If President-elect Donald Trump cuts the supply of military aid, the Ukrainians will lose – it’s that simple.
US President-elect Donald Trump has been clear he intends to change his nation’s policy on the war in Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
Sasha says: “We have a lack of weapons, we have a lack of artillery, we have a lack of infantry, and as the world doesn’t care about justice, and they don’t want to finish the war by our win, they are afraid of Russia.
“I’m sorry but they’re scared, they’re scared, and it’s not the right way.”
Like pretty much everyone in Ukraine, Sasha is waiting to see what the US election result will mean for his country.
He is sceptical about a deal with Russia.
“Our enemy only understands the language of power. And you cannot finish the war in 24 hours, or during the year without hard decisions, without a fight, so it’s impossible. It’s just talking without results,” he tells me.
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‘Losing will be not only our problem’
These men expect the fierce battles inside Kursk to intensify in the coming days.
Indeed, alongside the main supply route into Kursk, workers are already building new defensive positions – unfurling miles of razor wire and digging bunkers for the Ukrainian army if it finds itself in retreat.
Barbed wire rolled out in the Sumy region ahead of expected fighting
Tank traps in the Sumy region
Sasha and his men are realistic about support fatigue from the outside world but will keep fighting to the last if they have to.
“I understand this is only our problem, it’s only our issue, and we have to fight this battle, like we have to defend ourselves, it’s our responsibility,” Sasha said.
But he points out everyone should realise just how critical this moment in time is.
“If we look at it widely, we have to understand that us losing will be not only our problem, but it will be for all the world.”
Stuart Ramsay reports from northeastern Ukraine with camera operator Toby Nash, and producers Dominique Van Heerden, Azad Safarov, and Nick Davenport.
A weather warning has been issued for parts of Spain, as the country counts the cost of recent flooding.
The orange warnings are in place for parts of southwestern Spain – the area around Seville down towards Gibraltar.
Up to 8cm (3ins) of rain could fall within 12 hours, but the weekend looks much more settled in the country.
The latest warnings come just two weeks after flash flooding in Valencia and other parts of the country killed more than 200 people.
Malaga saw 14.2cm (5.6ins) of rainfall on Wednesday – Spain’s highest of the day – most of which fell in six hours.
All train services were halted in Malaga. Some flights have now resumed after the initial disruption.
Pic: Jamie Marchant
Emergency services in the province have moved 3,000 people from homes at risk of flooding close to the Guadalhorce River in the west of the city.
Jamie Marchant, 29, from Caerphilly in South Wales travelled to Malaga last Wednesday.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
He told Sky News that “debris” had been left behind by the recent rainfall in the region.
“Everyone is pitching in to clean up and some shops are opening as usual,” he added.
Orange warnings for the Valencia region in eastern Spain expired earlier on Thursday.
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The adverse weather could lead to total insured losses of more than €4bn (£3.33bn), according to credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS.
Much of the claims are expected to be covered by the Spanish government’s insurance pool, the agency said, but insurance premiums are likely to increase.
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