Guardian’s Amelia Gentleman Wins Paul Foot Award For Windrush Reporting

Amelia Gentleman of the Guardian has won the prestigious Paul Foot award for investigative and campaigning journalism for her reporting on the Windrush scandal.

The judges commended Gentleman’s determination in pursuing the issue, which led to the resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd and the Government government loosening its “hostile environment” for migrants.

The Guardian’s editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said: “Amelia Gentleman’s determined and empathetic reporting exposed a national scandal, and gave a voice to the Windrush generation. Amelia has shown brilliantly that independent, investigative journalism can hold power to account and change the world. I’m really delighted for her.”

The story focused on immigration troubles wrongly forced upon Commonwealth-born British citizens, the Guardian reported.

“The judges were impressed by the tenacity of Amelia Gentleman’s work, her determination to tell the stories of the victims of the government’s hostile environment policy, and the enormous impact her work had, proving that good reporting really can make a difference,” said Padraig Reidy, the chair of the judges.

Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye, which runs the awards, said: “Congratulations to Amelia Gentleman for a campaign that was revelatory, important and amazingly effective. This was the Windrush scandal – where a Cabinet Minister was thrown overboard and the ship of state nearly sank.”

Front page courtesy of NLA media access.