During his seven years as political editor of The Sunday Times, Cracknell contributed to "an extraordinary run of Whitehall scoops" which exposed Tony Blair's government.

[2] On 23 May 2004, he revealed the doubts of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that tactics in Iraq were "heavy handed".

[3] Another big story came in April 2004 when he revealed a series of leaked cabinet papers on David Blunkett's plan to introduce compulsory ID cards.

[4] On 8 August 2004, it was revealed that Sir David Omand, the UK's intelligence and security coordinator, had told a meeting of the British cabinet he was launching a major leak inquiry, which ended up costing an estimated £1 million.

[5] Cracknell obtained a leaked document written by Alastair Campbell shortly before the 2005 general election which claimed that the Labour Party was "home and dry".