Hannah Barnes
The New Statesman
Hannah Barnes is Investigations Editor at the New Statesman, where she focuses on the topics and stories shaping the world we live in. An award-winning journalist, she spent 15 years at the BBC specialising in analytical and investigative journalism on both television – for BBC Newsnight – and radio. Hannah produced, edited and reported for many of Radio 4’s best known news and current affairs shows. She is the author of Sunday Times Bestseller, Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children.
Her shortlisted pieces were:
- Britain’s Next Maternity Scandal
- Untold Harm (print) / England’s maternity scandal engulfs another NHS trust: Dozens of babies’ deaths might have been avoided (online)
- We need a culture change in maternity services
- The Amos Review
England’s maternity crisis is in desperate need of reform, and Hannah Barnes has already established herself as the reporter best placed to deliver it, exposed legal gaps that left bereaved families without answers, and stayed with those families long enough to ensure the promises made to them were kept. This story is far from over, and we shortlist Hannah’s work not only for what it has already exposed, but for what it will go on to achieve.
– Phil Collins, Chair of Judges,
The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils 2026
