Jane Merrick

At the age of 19, Merrick set up a listings magazine called L:Scene during her gap year in 1993 which was her first job in journalism.^[8] She worked as a political correspondent for the Press Association in Westminster between 2001 and 2003.^[9] She then worked for The Daily Mail as a political correspondent between 2003 and 2008.^[10][11] Merrick left the newspaper to become political editor for The Independent on Sunday,^[12][13] a position she held till 2015 when she became a freelance journalist to spend more time with her daughter.^[8][14] She co-founded a daily news briefing email service called The Spoon which launched in 2017.^[15]

She joined the Labour Party in 2016 to support Angela Eagle's bid to become leader in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.^[16] Merrick left Labour in 2018 due to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and their handling of antisemitism within the party.^[17]

In November 2017, then Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon resigned following Merrick's allegation of sexual harassment when she was a 29-year-old journalist for The Daily Mail in 2003. She had accused Fallon of lunging towards her.^[18][19] Merrick was highlighted in Time's Person of the Year edition in the same year, which highlighted "The Silence Breakers" who spoke out against sexual harassment.^[20]

Merrick was named in The House magazine list of 100 most inspirational women in Westminster in 2022.^[21]

Merrick is in a relationship with Toby Helm who is the political editor of The Observer. They have a daughter born in 2010.^[3][22]