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Liam Thorpe: Politics, campaigns and body mass index
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Liam Thorpe, Political Editor Liverpol Echo
fter covering some of the biggest stories in Liverpool in recent years, the Political Editor for the Liverpool Echo Liam Thorp has become the go-to political savvy in Merseyside. His journalism has made waves all the way from the banks of the Mersey to Westminster and has been awarded by the prestigious Society of Editors. Nonetheless, the 6.2 foot – not to be confused with 6.2cm – journalist has talked with Liverpool Life about the stories behind some of the biggest exposés that he has reported for the Echo in recent years. He also spoke about his feelings after a year of covering the Covid-19 pandemic and, of course, his body mass index, which led to a story about Liam, rather than by him, going viral. Liam began by talking about his reporting of the latest update in the saga of the Labour party elections of their candidate for the Liverpool mayoral election. The political scene in the city was thrown into chaos when the National Labour Party decided to scrap an agreed shortlist of candidates for the election in May and re-open the contest. Liam said: “It was pretty crazy. “As soon as we broke the news, you could see prominent national journalists retweeting you. Then, everyone was coming at you like ‘give us reasons, give us answers’.
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The adrenaline kicked in and I had a few things to balance. The first was: ‘I need to get this out first’. “As soon as somebody had sent me the mail that the Labour party sent around, I was writing as fast as my tiny, little hands would allow me,” he said. The Political Editor for the Echo indeed managed to get this news out first. Nevertheless, in other occasions he has also exceled at covering longterm, investigative stories. One of these was Stephen Smith’s fight to get reimbursed years of Employment and Support Allowance benefits that had been denied to him by the government. “It was one of the most difficult and emotional stories I probably have ever written,” Liam said. “I was
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JORGE CAPERA meets the political editor of the Liverpool Echo to talk about his career and going viral contacted by a friend of Stephen’s because I had done some previous stories about benefits. “I thought it was a fairly normal one of these stories. But, then, he sent me a picture of Stephen and I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe this was someone living in England in 2019.” He refers to one picture showing Mr Smith after starving for several months. When they met, Stephen told him how he had been fighting for two years to get the basic level of benefits to live while suffering with a number of health conditions. Liam said: “I began a campaign for him to get back the money that he should’ve had for the two years he had been fighting because it was very
clear that for those two years Stephen had been getting more ill and that the effort, the pain, and the anxiety of everything he had been going through was making things worse.” The campaign led to a review of how the Department for Work and Pensions was awarding the benefits Stephen was supposed to receive, and to Stephen being reimbursed about £4,500. “However, what was incredible sad was that the money actually arrived too late. About a week or so before, Stephen had died,” Liam said. The campaign of the Manchester-born journalist won an award from the Society of Editors in 2019 and his reputation has grown ever since. He has been offered jobs in the national newspapers, in London,
It was one of the most difficult and emotional stories I probably have ever written
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