Isabel Oakeshott
Isabel Oakeshottis a British political journalist.
Oakeshott was the political editor of The Sunday Times and is the co-author, with Michael Ashcroft, of an unauthorised biography of former British prime minister David Cameron, Call Me Dave, and of various other non-fiction titles, including White Flag? An Examination of the UK's Defence Capability, also written with Ashcroft, Farmageddon, co-written with Philip Lymbery, and Pandemic Diaries, co-written with Matt Hancock, which provides an account of Hancock's tenure as the UK's Health Secretary during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Journalism career
Politically, Oakeshott is regarded as a right-wing journalist.
Oakeshott began her career in journalism in Scotland, working for the East Lothian Courier, Edinburgh Evening News, Daily Record, Sunday Mirror and Daily Mail, before returning to London and joining the Evening Standard as the Health correspondent. After three years, she moved to The Sunday Times in 2006 as deputy political editor, becoming political editor in 2010, and remained until 2014. She was awarded the title Political Journalist of the Year at the 2011 The Press Awards.
In 2013, while at The Sunday Times, she persuaded Vicky Pryce to implicate Pryce's estranged husband, former Liberal Democrat MP and Cabinet minister Chris Huhne, in having committed the offence of perverting the course of justice, leading to the case R v Huhne, and to both Pryce and Huhne being convicted and imprisoned.
Oakeshott has appeared as a panelist on the BBC's Daily Politics, as well as on BBC TV's Question Time, and has been a contributor to Sky News' Press Preview programme.
Between February 2016 and early 2017, Oakeshott was the Daily Mail's political editor-at-large. In 2019, she wrote a series of articles for The Mail on Sunday based on leaked diplomatic memos written by the British Ambassador to the United States Sir Kim Darroch, in which he criticised the Trump administration. The leak led to his resignation.
In July 2019, The Guardian amended an article by its parliamentary sketch writer John Crace which contained a sentence that had potentially implied that Oakeshott obtained the Darroch emails by sleeping with Nigel Farage or Arron Banks. At the time, she called the comment "demonstrably false and extraordinarily sexist". The newspaper later published an apology.
In September 2021, GB News announced that Oakeshott would be hosting a weekly show on the channel. She left to join TalkTV as its International Editor in April 2022. She earns a £250,000 salary for the role. Her prominence in these roles led to the New Statesman naming her as the 32nd most influential right-wing political figure in the UK.
