David Leigh

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David Leigh is a British journalist, author and editor. He has been one of Britain's leading investigative journalists since the 1970s, and with his 1988 book The Wilson Plot he did much to increase public interest in alleged attempts by the British security services and others to destabilise Harold Wilson's government in the 1970s. His 1995 TV documentary for World in Action, "Jonathan of Arabia", led after a celebrated libel trial to the jailing for perjury of former Conservative arms sales minister Jonathan Aitken. His most recent campaign led to his naming of Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia as the recipient of £1bn payments from arms company BAE to cement a UK-Saudi arms deal. All involved deny wrongdoing, but BAE's arms sales are now under criminal inquiry by the US department of justice and other international prosecutors. Currently Leigh is assistant editor of The Guardian.

In 2006, Leigh also became the United Kingdom's first professor of reporting at City University, London.

In 2007, he was awarded the Paul Foot prize, with his colleague Rob Evans, for the BAE bribery exposures. The prize is awarded annually by Private Eye/The Guardian in memory of the campaigning journalist Paul Foot. Leigh and Evans were also presented with the Granada TV What the Papers Say Judges' Award for 'an outstanding piece of investigative journalism that uncovered a story of great significance'.

[edit] Selected bibliography

• High Time: The Life and Times of Howard Marks (Heineman) ; 1984)
• The Wilson Plot (Pantheon Books ; 1988)
• The Liar: Fall of Jonathan Aitken (with Luke Harding and David Pallister ) (Penguin Books ; 1997)
• Sleaze: The Corruption of Parliament (with Ed Vulliamy) (Fourth Estate ; 1997)

[edit] References and external links

• "David Leigh to become Britain’s first professor of reporting", Citynews, September 27, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-20. 
• Guardian - David Leigh profile page