Westminster Accounts: Sky News wins information journalism award for undertaking that had ‘large influence’

Sep 06, 2023 at 10:34 PM
Westminster Accounts: Sky News wins information journalism award for undertaking that had ‘large influence’

Sky News has received the information journalism award on the Press Gazette’s Future of Media Awards for its Westminster Accounts undertaking which was praised for having a “massive impact”.

An interactive database lets the reader seek for details about the earnings and donations declared by any MP, political celebration, all-party parliamentary group, or donor because the final basic election.

Sky News and Tortoise Media collected and analysed hundreds of public information to create a record of financial interests in Westminster from December 2019 onwards.

The first-of-its-kind searchable database makes it straightforward for the general public to look at the hundreds of thousands of kilos pouring into British politics.

Search for your MP using the Westminster Accounts tool

When the undertaking went dwell in January, it revealed MPs had earned £17.1m on top of their salaries in this parliament, with about two-thirds of the cash going to only 20 MPs.

Sky News discovered the vast majority of the additional earnings went to Tory politicians – a complete of £15.2m – whereas Labour MPs earned an extra £1.2m. All MPs are paid a base wage of £86,584.

More on Westminster Accounts

The debate over second jobs dominated 2021 after former Tory MP Owen Paterson turned embroiled in a lobbying scandal that ultimately led to his resignation.

Read extra:
Head of ethics watchdog calls for limits on MPs’ second jobs
MPs vote in favour of new transparency rules
No 10 says MPs should ‘focus on serving constituencies’

The judges stated of the Westminster Accounts: “This was one of the seminal digital journalism stories of the last year which has had a massive impact and been widely followed up.

“It is impressively visualised and has prompted debate within the House of Commons.”

The Future Of Media Awards have fun the very best in digital journalism merchandise and publishing innovation of the previous 12 months.

The Financial Times received in 4 classes: e-newsletter, podcast, digital storytelling and news media app.

Other winners of the 2023 awards included The Telegraph which received the award for news and present affairs web site, Insider, Reach, The Times, and the Kyiv Independent.