Patience Wheatcroft

Patience Wheatcroft (born 28 September 1951) is a former British journalist who served as editor of the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. She resigned from this post in September 2007 after eighteen months in the job and has since moved out of journalism

Career

In journalism

Wheatcroft has worked on several national newspapers including The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph. After serving as Deputy City Editor of the Mail on Sunday, Wheatcroft was appointed Business & City Editor of The Times in 1997, and then as editor of the Sunday Telegraph in March 2006.

In 2001 she won the Winscott Senior Journalist of the Year Award, and in 2003 was London Press Club Business Journalist of the Year.

A controversy erupted in December 2006 when she heavily censored Christopher Booker's Sunday Telegraph column for 3 December, removing sections highly critical of Conservative Party leader David Cameron. Booker told his colleague Richard North: "I was told by the SunTel editor today that my item attacking Cameron is to be dropped. This is the first time such a thing has happened since I began writing the column 16 years ago.

On 4 September 2007 she resigned as editor of The Sunday Telegraph being replaced by Ian MacGregor , who until then had been deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph. Reports stated that Wheatcroft was under pressure to integrate the Sunday paper's reporters with the daily newspaper's 24/7 operation.

In other fields

Since 1 January 2008, Wheatcroft has served as a non-executive director of Barclays plc.

On 8 May 2008 she was appointed head of the newly created Forensic Audit Panel by the incoming Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. The panel is tasked with monitoring and investigating financial management at the London Development Agency and the Greater London Authority.

Private life

Wheatcroft is married with three children. She is a lifelong supporter of the Conservative Party and her publisher husband Tony is a Conservative councillor.

Sources