On 13 October 2022, Pagefield hosted a roundtable discussion with Noa Hoffman, Political Reporter at The Sun, to discuss her role at the paper, how her story on Chris Pincher ultimately kickstarted the collapse of Boris Johnson’s Government, and how she goes about looking for the next big story.
The Sun machine
Journalists working on daily papers like Noa often need to source, verify, write and publish stories within hours of the original tip-off – in stark contrast to Sunday papers’ longer investigations, in which journalists have time to delve deeper into the issues at play.
Noa herself mentioned how she would be unable to publish stories such as the one about allegations against Chris Pincher, without the vast resources available to her at The Sun. Through her team, they can verify the information, secure the right of reply and get sign off from lawyers before publishing the story. Not every journalist has the luxury of this machine behind them, and Noa believes it has been crucial to her and The Sun’s success.
Johnson’s downfall
In July, Noa broke the story detailing groping allegations against the Deputy Chief Whip Chris Pincher, which was followed by a series of events ultimately leading to the resignation of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. As the story broke, Johnson’s official spokesperson denied the Prime Minister had known about the specific claims before appointing Pincher to his role. However, the BBC’s Ione Wells later revealed that Johnson had known about rumours surrounding the MP’s sexual conduct for years, triggering the crumble of his government.
There was agreement around the table that the revelation did not solely cause Johnson’s demise – instead the story was one of the dominoes in a long line from various news outlets, including the Mirror, ITV and BBC. However, it was emphasised that the sinister sexual nature of the story tapped into the public’s emotions and combined with the constant stream of other negative press, Johnson was left with no choice but to resign.
The importance of sources
Across Westminster, rumours spread like wildfire –securing multiple sources to substantiate these can be a challenging part of the job for lobby journalists.
The frustration of having stories pulled last minute is something Noa has been able to relate to on multiple occasions. For a story to be published it must meet the Editor’s standards. The importance of this box ticking cannot be underestimated as highlighted by the various legal cases brought against British newspapers in the last few years.
Hard work pays off
Noa has wanted to be a journalist for as long as she can remember, but from the start she faced an uphill battle – she was rejected from every journalism graduate scheme she applied to in her final year at university. Since joining the lobby, she has had to work tirelessly to convince her peers she could be a competent journalist – with her age and gender, in her view, often leading to the assumption that she is less capable than others in the lobby.
Noa has learnt just how hard working the entire lobby is, and how important it is in holding people in power to account and in making sure the public can be informed about what elected officials are doing in Parliament.
