Isabel Oakeshott

"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. 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. https://news.sky.com/story/who-is-isabel-oakeshott-the-journalist-behind-the-matt-hancock-leak-whose-work-landed-an-mp-in-prison-and-made-an-ambassador-resign-12823424