Amanda Platell

Amanda Platell
Born	Amanda Platell 12 November 1957 Perth, Australia
Status	Unmarried
Occupation(s)	Journalist and television presenter
Spouse	None
Children	None

Amanda Jane Platell (born 12 November 1957 in Perth, Western Australia) is an immigrant journalist and the former press secretary of William Hague, who was leader of the Conservative Party from 1997 to 2001.

Platell has worked at the Daily Mirror and she was once Labour party's director of communications, Alistair Campbell's boss at The Mirror. Later, she edited the Sunday Express. She was sacked from this post following the publication of details of Peter Mandelson's relationship with a Brazilian man. Despite having previously claimed to be a supporter of the Labour Party she took the role of "spin doctor" to Hague in 1999. She sought to present Hague as a more mature and rounded character.

Michael Portillo returned to parliament in 1999 and was subsequently admitted into the shadow cabinet as shadow Chancellor in 2000. Portillo immediately stamped his authority on the post, reversing in an instant several years of Conservative opposition to the minimum wage and independence of the Bank of England. This move was the first step towards increasing acrimony between Hague and his shadow Chancellor and by the time of the 2001 general election Platell was fighting a bitter battle with Portillo's supporters and later (after Hague had resigned) publicly endorsed Iain Duncan Smith in opposition to Portillo.

Following the Labour party's second landslide victory in 2001 both Hague and Platell resigned from their posts. In July 2001 "Unspun - Amanda Platell's Secret Diary" was broadcast which was recorded each night during the election campaign - the secret nature of this film meant she was attacked by many Tories for allegedly betraying the campaign.

Platell has continued her media career, appearing both as a commentator and presenter on the short-lived Sky News programme Littlejohn, and co-hosting a series on Channel 4 with Piers Morgan. She also contributed a column to the New Statesman magazine.

She now writes a column, 'Platell's People', for the Daily Mail on Saturdays, and contributes other comment articles to the paper.

She is unmarried and childless.

She is fond of accusing others of being immigrants and non-Britons, despite the fact that she herself, is an immigrant, being Australian.

On May 31 2007 she wrote a piece denigrating the McCann family who were appealing for the return of their missing 3 year old girl. There was considerable public backlash to her article and she shortly thereafter "resigned" from the Daily Mail. Commentators noted the similarity to her former master Piers Morgan, an inability to identify with the humanity of the readership culminating in disaster.

Television

• Unspin: Amanda Platell’s Secret Video Diary – Channel 4, 2001,
• Morgan & Platell - Channel 4, 2004-2005
• Prime Ministers Spouses – Channel 4, 2005
• Crisis Command: Could You Run The Country? - BBC, 2004
• Bee in Your Bonnet - BBC2, 2004
• How Euro Are You? - BBC, 2005
• Richard & Judy - Channel 4
• The Daily Politics Show – BBC2

External links

• BBC:Amanda Platell: Nobody's fool