Obituary: Tony Smith

Tony Smith was the doyen of tabloid political reporters. A veteran journalist and story getter Smith would trawl the bars and restaurants at Westminster during lunch, return and declare to other lobby journalists "I've got a belter". He was rarely wrong and the press gallery at Westminster would reverberate with the message "Stay late - Smudger's got a belter."

His scoops included one about a foreign diplomat who had been preying on children but claimed diplomatic immunity to escape prosecution. The then premier Margaret Thatcher confirmed the claims in the House, praised Smith's work and expelled the diplomat. Smith also created a sensation when he revealed that Yorkshire Police had secretly reopened investigations into the Moors murders more than 20 years after the original crime. Tony Smith had that rare talent. He could always see the best angle in a story and using his tact and formidable capacity to entertain would deliver the goods that editors wanted.

Allied to his professionalism Smith was a wonderful companion and colleague and his contacts in the management hierarchy in newspapers was formidable. On one famous occasion he cautioned a disgruntled colleague not to resign for a better paid position on another paper. The journalist took the advice, was sacked the following day with a handsome pay-off and went straight to his new job very much the richer thanks to Smith.

He was born in 1945 into the austerity of post-war Yorkshire. Brought up on a council estate in Shipley, he was one of few to gain entrance to the local grammar school. Leaving school at 16 Smith joined the Shipley Times and Express before moving to the Doncaster Evening Post, the Birmingham Evening Mail and then to the London office of the Wolverhampton Express and Star.

His Fleet Street career began in 1976 when he joined the Daily Mail as a general reporter. Three years later he joined the Daily Star, rising through the ranks to become political editor in 1985. In 1987 he joined the Sunday Express first as political editor and later as foreign editor. The foreign post was given to Smith by the then editor in the hope that he would fail. In fact, through dogged determination and excellent contacts, as well as a good bit of "tap dancing", Smith was a great success and saw that particular editor off.

His love of politics was matched by his love of football. He supported both Leeds and Bradford and was an enthusiastic member of the press gallery soccer team at the House of Commons. A burly fullback, he played against politicians with all the compassion of a fork lift truck, up-ending MPs, ministers and peers with the same good natured disregard.

His background gave him a personal toughness and an appreciation of real values that saw him through personal and professional crises but also gave him a compassion for the luckless in life and the quest to fight injustice.

In 1994 he returned to the Daily Star as political editor.

Although married Smith was estranged from his wife and was nursed with much devotion by his long-term companion Joy Raymond. He died at his home in the West Country.

Anthony Smith, journalist: born Shipley, West Yorkshire 14 April 1945; died 16 October 1996.