Democracy for Sale wins The Private Eye Paul Foot Award 2026
Monday 1st June 2026
The Private Eye Paul Foot Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism 2026 has been awarded to PETER GEOGHEGAN & KHADIJA SHARIFE, DEMOCRACY FOR SALE, for their entry How Labour Together hired a PR firm to target journalists.
The Democracy for Sale newsletter uncovered how campaign group Labour Together hired a PR firm to build dossiers on reputable journalists with the intent to discredit them. The investigation led to the resignation of former Labour Together chief Josh Simons from his post as parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet Office.
The award, worth £8,000 and now in its twenty-second year, was set up in memory of renowned journalist Paul Foot who died in 2004, and recognises the UK’s most brilliant, talented and determined journalists working in the fields of investigative and campaigning journalism.
The 2026 awards ceremony was hosted tonight at BAFTA by Ian Hislop, Editor of PrivateEye, who said: “Any excuse for a party, as Zack Polanski put so beautifully. It’s been an extraordinary year for the news. Journalism, even though it takes a long time, is worth doing, as none of it goes away. It’s extraordinary also what people do now to make journalism affordable and accessible. My final words to you now are what the whole country wants to say to the Prime Minister: ‘Why don’t you return to the bar?’.”
Pádraig Reidy, Chair of Judges, The Private Eye Paul Foot Award, commented: “Each year, the Paul Foot Award is a chance to learn about new talent, new issues, and new ways of telling important stories. The shortlists reflect only a fraction of the skill, knowledge, talent and sheer bloody-mindedness of journalism in this country.”
A piece on the winners will appear in the print issue of Private Eye, available on 10th June. Interviews with all the shortlisted journalists will also be available on the Private Eye Page 94 podcast.
On the night, a special award worth £1,000 was given also to Suzanne Antelme, The Reading Chronicle, for her investigation Remedicare: the SEND provider run by a drug smuggler. Meanwhile, Ian’s speech also recognised with a special mention Simon Ezra-Jackson, The Damned Magazine, for his inquiry ‘Fashion Police: Does the St Andrews Charity Fashion Show…give to charity?’.
THE 2026 SHORTLIST, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY JOURNALIST, IS:
Lindsay Bruce, ThePress and Journal Trapped by Raac Campaign
Adam Bychawski, Big Issue/The Lead How the UK fails victims of miscarriages of justice
Joe Duggan, The i paper Silicosis scandal of killer kitchen worktops
Peter Geoghegan & Khadija Sharife, Democracy for Sale How Labour Together hired a PR firm to target journalists
Chloe Hadjimatheou, The Observer The real Salt Path investigation
Daniel Timms, Mollie Simpson, Dan Hayes, Jack Walton, Abi Whistance, The Sheffield Tribune Andrew Milne: the litigious lawyer who demanded five-figure sums from homeowners
This year’s judging panel, chaired by Pádraig Reidy, Little Atoms, included last year’s winners Patrick Butler and Josh Halliday of The Guardian, along with Samira Ahmed, Matt Foot, Janine Gibson, Francis Wheen, Helen Lewis, Julia Langdon and Sir Simon Jenkins.
Peter Geoghegan and Khadija Sharife join a distinguished list of journalists to have received the Paul Foot Award since it was established twenty-two years ago, including:
2025: PatrickButler & Josh Halliday, The Guardian
2024: Tristan Kirk, EveningStandard
2023: David Conn, The Guardian
2022: David Collins & Hannah Al-Othman, The Sunday Times
2021: Robert Smith, Financial Times
2020: Alexandra Heal, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism/Various Outlets
2019: Emily Dugan, Buzzfeed
2018: Amelia Gentleman, The Guardian
2017: Emma Youle, Hackney Gazette
2014: Heidi Blake & Jonathan Calvert (The Sunday Times) and Andrew Bousfield & Richard Brooks (Private Eye)
2013: David Cohen, Evening Standard
2012: Andrew Norfolk, The Times
2011: Nick Davies, The Guardian
2010: Clare Sambrook, End Child Detention Now campaign, Various Outlets
2009: Ian Cobain, The Guardian
2008: Richard Brooks (Private Eye) and Camilla Cavendish (The Times )
2007: Rob Evans & David Leigh (The Guardian) & Deborah Wain (Doncaster Free Press)
2006: David Harrison, The Sunday Telegraph
2005: John Sweeney, Daily Mail