Owen J. Bennett (born 1985) is a British former journalist. He served as head of politics at the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

newspaper ''

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'' and Whitehall editor at ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''. He wrote for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' and the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' and was a regular contributor to

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and

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Early life

Bennett was born in July 1985 to Deborah, a primary school teacher, and Nigel Bennett. He left

Harlow College Harlow College is a further education college in Harlow, Essex, England. This medium-sized college has 5,900 students as of 2018 of which 2,585 are on 16-19 programmes and 2,000 are on adult educational programmes. Its main campus is in the tow ...

in June 2008 and took an administrative job at

Essex County Council Essex County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Essex in England. It has 75 councillors, elected from 70 divisions, and is currently controlled by the Conservative Party. The council meets at County Hall ...

, using his holidays to volunteer at a local paper. He trained at the

National Council for the Training of Journalists The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) was founded in 1951 as organisation to oversee the training of journalists for the newspaper industry in the United Kingdom and is now playing a role in the wider media. It is a self-ap ...

(NCTJ).

Career

In November 2009, Bennett found permanent employment at his local newspaper, the '' Colchester Daily Gazette''. He joined the Parliamentary Lobby in 2014 and was recruited by the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'', becoming their online political reporter. He then led the political coverage for the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'''s website, and became deputy political editor of ''HuffPost UK''. His first book, ''Following Farage'', was named one of 2015's Political Books of the Year by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''. His second book, ''The Brexit Club'', was published in 2016 and described the efforts of the

Leave campaign Campaigning in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum began unofficially on 20 February 2016 when Prime Minister David Cameron formally announced under the terms of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 that a referendum wou ...

in the EU membership referendum. ''

'' appointed Bennett as their head of politics in September 2018. His unauthorised biography of

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician

Michael Gove Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...

, entitled ''Michael Gove: A Man in a Hurry'', was published in July 2019. The book made the claim that Gove admitted he had taken

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

to his advisors in 2016, saying: "I took drugs on several occasions at social events more than 20 years ago. At the time I was a young journalist. It was a mistake. I look back and think I wish I hadn't done that." Excerpts from the book were serialised in the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'', and the book also details Gove's life in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

as an adopted child. Bennett joined ''

'' as their Whitehall editor in August 2019. In October the same year, ''

Guido Fawkes Guido Fawkes is a right-wing political website published by British-Irish political blogger Paul Staines. History In September 2004, Staines began writing an anonymous blog about British politics under the name of Guido Fawkes, an alternative ...

'' exclusively revealed that he had been dismissed by the paper for having "lied about the circumstances in which he left his previous position" at ''HuffPost UK'' which he had left "because of allegations related to another female employee". In February 2020, Bennett claimed to have left journalism for good as a result of damage to his career and reputation.

Bibliography

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References

External links

Owen Bennett
on

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Owen 1985 births Living people British male journalists 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British journalists The Daily Telegraph people HuffPost writers and columnists British newspaper journalists