Laura Kuenssberg | |
---|---|
Born | Laura Juliet Kuenssberg 8 August 1976 |
Nationality | British |
Education | Laurel Bank School |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh (MA) Georgetown University |
Occupation | Journalist |
Notable work | BBC News, Newsnight , Brexitcast , Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg |
Title | Political Editor of BBC News (2015–2022) |
Spouse | James Kelly |
Relatives | Joanna Kuenssberg (sister) Ekkehard von Kuenssberg (paternal grandfather) Lord Robertson (maternal grandfather) Sir James Wilson Robertson (great-uncle) |
Laura Juliet Kuenssberg (born 8 August 1976) is a British journalist who presents the BBC's Sunday morning politics show. She was succeeded as Political Editor of BBC News by Chris Mason. [1] [2]
She succeeded Nick Robinson as Political Editor of BBC News in July 2015, and was the first woman to hold the position. Kuenssberg stepped down as political editor on 6 May 2022, after reporting on the 2022 United Kingdom local elections. [3] She went on to replace Andrew Marr as the host of the BBC's weekend political interview programme, which was rebadged with the name Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in September 2022. [4]
Kuenssberg had previously served as the BBC's chief political correspondent and was the first Business Editor of ITV News. She was also the chief correspondent for Newsnight between February 2014 and July 2015. [5]
Kuenssberg was born in Rome, Italy, in 1976 to Nick and Sally Kuenssberg. [6] [7] She grew up in Glasgow with her brother and sister, [8] and attended Laurel Bank School before going on to study history at the University of Edinburgh, where she graduated with a first-class honours degree and an MA. [9] During her degree, she spent a year studying at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., U.S., where she interned at NBC. [10] [11]
Her Edinburgh-born father, Nick Kuenssberg, was a businessman, investor, and academic; [12] [13] while her mother worked in children's services and received an OBE for this in the 2000 New Year Honours. [14] [15] Her paternal grandfather was German-born Ekkehard von Kuenssberg (CBE), a co-founder and president of the Royal College of General Practitioners. [16] Her maternal grandfather was Lord Robertson, a judge of the Scots High Court of Justiciary, whose brother James Wilson Robertson was the last British Governor-General of Nigeria. Her elder brother David was an executive director of finance and resources at Brighton and Hove City Council. [17] Her elder sister Joanna Kuenssberg is an oil executive for Shell and former diplomat who has served as high commissioner to Mozambique. [16]
Kuenssberg won the regional Royal Television Society "Most Promising Newcomer" award in 2001 while working as home affairs correspondent for BBC North East and Cumbria. [18]
In 2009, she was appointed chief political correspondent for the BBC. [19] Kuenssberg reported for BBC One bulletins, Daily Politics and the BBC News channel. In May 2010, her presence on BBC Television was so ubiquitous in the period between the 2010 United Kingdom general election and the formation of the Cameron–Clegg coalition, that journalist David Aaronovitch coined the term "Kuenssbergovision". [20]
Kuenssberg took up the newly created role of business editor for ITV News. She also contributed towards business reporting on ITV's current affairs strand, Tonight . [21]
On 12 November 2013, it was announced that she would leave ITV to return to the BBC as chief correspondent and a presenter of Newsnight , replacing Gavin Esler in the latter role. She joined the Newsnight team in February 2014. [22] [23]
Between the 2017 United Kingdom general election and Brexit in 2020, Kuenssberg also co-presented the BBC's Brexitcast podcast alongside Katya Adler, Adam Fleming, and Chris Mason, which was then retitled as the Newscast podcast. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]
In September 2023, Kuenssberg presented Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos; a three-part political documentary series, that aired on BBC2. [29]
On 28 May 2024, Kuenssberg was announced as the host of the BBC's election night coverage for the 2024 United Kingdom general election, alongside Clive Myrie. [30] [31]
In October 2024, the BBC cancelled an interview Kuenssberg was due to conduct with former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after she accidentally sent him her briefing notes. [32] [33]
She was appointed in July 2015 as the BBC's political editor, the first woman to hold the position. [19] In January 2016, Kuenssberg was involved in arranging for the Labour MP Stephen Doughty to publicly announce his resignation as a shadow foreign office minister on Daily Politics. The incident was the subject of an official complaint from Seumas Milne, the Labour Party's director of communications, which was rejected by Robbie Gibb, then the BBC's head of live political programmes. [34]
In December 2016, Kuenssberg said a source had told her that the Queen had made comments supportive of leaving the European Union during a private lunch at Windsor Castle. She initially decided not to report the comments because the BBC generally requires a story to have two sources before it can run. [35]
During a joint press conference with the prime minister Theresa May and Donald Trump, then president of the United States, Kuenssberg recalled a number of controversial statements Trump made about his proposed travel ban during the 2016 United States presidential election, and asked Trump if he had anything to say to British viewers "worried about you becoming the leader of the free world?" Trump responded, "That's your choice of a question?" He then remarked to May: "There goes that relationship." [36]
In March 2019, Kuenssberg presented a documentary, The Brexit Storm: Laura Kuenssberg's Inside Story, for BBC Two. [37] Her role in the reporting of Brexit negotiations was the subject of an article in The Times Magazine of 30 March 2019. [38]
On 11 December 2019, while reporting on the 2019 United Kingdom general election, she was accused of breaking electoral law by stating that postal ballots painted a "grim" picture for Labour. Kuenssberg told viewers on Wednesday that while parties were not supposed to look at voting papers when they were verified – but not counted – at opening sessions, they did "get a hint" of how they were doing and it was not looking good for Labour. [39] The BBC denied that any law had been broken, and she was eventually cleared, [40] despite claims that the Representation of the People Act 1983 had been broken, as it lays out that "no person shall, in the case of an election to which this section applies, publish before the poll is closed [...] any statement relating to the way in which voters have voted at the election where that statement is (or might reasonably be taken to be) based on information given by voters after they have voted, or b) any forecast as to the result of the election which is (or might reasonably be taken to be) based on information so given."
On 17 December 2019, she presented a second documentary film, The Brexit Storm Continues: Laura Kuenssberg's Inside Story, which covered Boris Johnson's arrival at 10 Downing Street through to the 2019 general election. [41]
On 20 December 2021, Kuenssberg announced that she would be stepping down as political editor, effective in the spring of 2022, to take "a senior presenting and reporting role" at the BBC. The Guardian reported that she was in talks to become a presenter on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. [42] It was suggested that Jon Sopel could take over the role of political editor in her place, leaving his role as the BBC's North America editor, but in February 2022 he left the BBC to join LBC. In the event Chris Mason was announced to be the next BBC political editor.
In March 2022, it was announced that Kuenssberg would be replacing Andrew Marr, in a full-time role, as the host of BBC One's flagship Sunday morning politics show, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg , starting in September 2022. [43] [44]
Following the 2016 local elections, a petition was started on 38 Degrees which accused Kuenssberg of being biased against the Labour Party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn, calling for her dismissal. [45] The petition was later withdrawn by David Babbs, executive director of 38 Degrees, who suggested it had become a "focal point for sexist and hateful abuse made towards Laura Kuenssberg" on other social media websites such as Twitter although it was acknowledged that this represented "the actions of a small minority". [46] [47]
In January 2017, the BBC Trust ruled that a report in November 2015 by Kuenssberg broke the broadcaster's impartiality and accuracy guidelines. A viewer had complained about her item, which featured an interview with Corbyn on the BBC News at Six which gave the incorrect impression that Corbyn disagreed with the use of firearms by police in incidents such as that month's terrorist attacks in Paris. His purported answer to a question as broadcast in the report was in fact his reply to a more general question (not broadcast), and not specifically about that terrorist attack. [48] The BBC Trust said that the inaccuracy was "compounded" when Kuenssberg went on to state that Corbyn's message "couldn't be more different" from that of May, who was about to publish anti-terrorism proposals. The trust said that accuracy was particularly important when dealing "with a critical question at a time of extreme national concern." [48] Nevertheless, the BBC Trust found no evidence that there had been any intention to mislead, and their ruling was that the footage "had been compiled in good faith." [49] The Daily Telegraph published a story about Kuenssberg in 2017 with the headline "the most divisive woman on TV today?" printed on the front-page. [7] [50]
In September 2019, Kuenssberg received criticism for her portrayal of Omar Salem, a father who confronted the prime minister, Boris Johnson, about the government's treatment of the NHS, as "a Labour activist." [51] Salem defended Kuenssberg, saying that she was doing her job "without fear or favour which is a vital part of democracy. I don't think 'Labour activist cares about NHS' is a huge scoop though...". [52]
On 11 December 2019, the day before the general election, she drew controversy by claiming on air that submitted postal votes, apparently viewed by both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, were "looking pretty grim for Labour in a lot of parts of the country". [53] [54] Viewing postal votes prior to polling day is in breach of guidelines set by the Electoral Commission [55] and predicting electoral outcomes based on votes cast prior to polls closing may be a criminal offence. [56] [57] The footage was subsequently withdrawn from BBC iPlayer, while the episode of Politics Live in which the incident happened was withdrawn and removed from the BBC Parliament schedule. [58] The BBC News press office tweeted: "Regarding today's Politics Live programme, the BBC does not believe it, or its political editor, has breached electoral law." [59] The Metropolitan Police later confirmed that there was "no evidence of any criminal offences having been committed." [60]
Kuenssberg was criticised, alongside other major journalists, for incorrectly tweeting that a Labour activist had punched a Conservative Party advisor, without verification; footage was released showing this was untrue and she later apologised and retracted her tweet. [61] On 3 March 2020, however, the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit stated that "It found no evidence of political bias nor that Laura Kuenssberg had failed to check the story before publication." In her apology, Kuenssberg noted that two sources had told her the story was true, and she hence decided to publish it. [62]
In May 2020, as the Dominic Cummings scandal broke, Kuenssberg tweeted several statements from an anonymous source close to Cummings about the nature of his trip. In one tweet, she contradicted Pippa Crerar, one of the journalists who broke the story, with information from a "source" which argued that the trip was not illegal. Many suspected that the anonymous source was Cummings himself, which led to allegations that Kuenssberg was defending, or at least uncritically repeating, his side of the story. This led to a significant volume of complaints to the BBC, which defended Kuenssberg's actions. [63] [64] In May 2021, Dominic Cummings confirmed to a Parliamentary committee that he "set the record straight" with briefings to Kuenssberg. [65] In 2022, Patrick Howse, a former BBC reporter and producer, described this as part of a pattern where "Access was crucial" which allowed "lies" to be "amplified and given credibility by Britain's state broadcaster." [66]
An interview with Boris Johnson in July 2020 led to over 100 complaints against Kuenssberg being submitted to the BBC alleging that she had overly interrupted Johnson and was displaying bias against the government. The BBC defended Kuenssberg, stating that she had conducted the interview in a 'thorough, firm but fair manner.' [67]
In November 2020, some economists criticised Kuenssberg's assessment of Rishi Sunak's economic statement, suggesting she lacked understanding of economics. The BBC defended Kuenssberg, stating that she was summarising the position of the Chancellor and that its economics editor, Faisal Islam, had then given the opposite position. [68]
In a July 2017 Spectator article, Charles Moore wrote of being told "informally" that Kuenssberg had received protection by a bodyguard during the 2017 general election. The BBC had believed her safety was under threat because of online abuse considered to be mainly from supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. [69] [70] The BBC refused to comment about the story. The Labour politician Yvette Cooper defended the BBC's political editor: "It's her job to ask difficult questions. It's her job to be sceptical about everything we say". By the end of the campaign, Kuenssberg was also being abused by some Conservative and UKIP supporters. [70] [71]
At both the Conservative and Labour Party conferences in 2017, Kuenssberg was accompanied by a security guard. [72] Journalist Jenni Russell, a former BBC editor herself, was quoted in The New York Times about the issue affecting Kuenssberg: "The graphic level of threats to women is quite extraordinary and it's one of the worst things to have happened in recent British public life." [73] [74]
At a November 2017 gathering in London, Kuenssberg said that internet trolls were attempting to silence her. [75]
In November 2016, Kuenssberg was awarded Broadcaster of the Year by the Political Studies Association. The prize was in recognition of her contribution to the public understanding of politics, especially surrounding the June 2016 EU Referendum and subsequent developments. [76]
At the British Journalism Awards organised by Press Gazette in December 2016, Kuenssberg received the Journalist of the Year award. [77] "Kuenssberg deserves this prize for the sheer volume and scope of reporting on some of the biggest changes ever in British politics" said the judges, pointing especially to her coverage of the EU membership referendum and its aftermath. [78]
Kuenssberg was named in the Evening Standard 's 2019 list of the top 20 'most influential Londoners'. [79]
Kuenssberg is married to James Kelly, a management consultant. [16] [80] The couple reside in East London and do not have any children. [81]
Diane Julie Abbott is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. She served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Home Secretary from 2016 to 2020 and is an advisor to the Privy Council. She was the first black woman elected to parliament and is the longest-serving black MP.
Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead, is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead from 1997 to 2024, and has been a member of the House of Lords since August 2024. May was the second female British prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to have held two of the Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May is a one-nation conservative.
Emily Anne Thornberry, Lady Nugee is a British Labour politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005. She served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales from 2021 until the 2024 UK general election, and previously from 2011 to 2014. Thornberry has also served in a number of other senior positions on Labour's front bench, namely as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2020, Shadow First Secretary of State from 2017 to 2020 and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade from 2020 to 2021.
Gloria De Piero is a British broadcaster and former Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield from 2010 to 2019.
Lisa Eva Nandy is a British Labour Party politician serving as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since 2024. She has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010. Nandy previously served as Shadow Foreign Secretary, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, Shadow Energy Secretary and Shadow International Development Minister.
Angela Rayner is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2024. She has been Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. Ideologically she identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.
The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing Conservative Party led by the prime minister Theresa May remained the largest single party in the House of Commons but lost its small overall majority, resulting in the formation of a Conservative minority government with a confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland.
Thangam Elizabeth Rachel Debbonaire is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol West between 2015 and 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from 2023 until 2024. She was previously Shadow Secretary of State for Housing from 2020 to 2021 and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons from 2021 to 2023.
Neil Alan John Coyle is a British Labour politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bermondsey and Old Southwark since 2015.
Joanna Meriel Stevens is a Welsh politician serving as Secretary of State for Wales since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2015, representing Cardiff East since 2024, having previously represented Cardiff Central.
Jessica Rose Phillips is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls since July 2024.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019, with 47,074,800 registered voters entitled to vote to elect 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The governing Conservative Party, led by the prime minister Boris Johnson, won a landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats, a net gain of 48, on 43.6 per cent of the popular vote, the highest percentage for any party since the 1979 general election, though with a narrower popular vote margin than that achieved by the Labour Party over the Conservatives at the 1997 general election. This was the second national election to be held in 2019 in the United Kingdom, the first being the 2019 European Parliament election.
The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election. It was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019, after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020; it was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, and was the first European election in the United Kingdom since 1999 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. This was the first of two national elections held in the United Kingdom in 2019; the 2019 general election occurred six-and-a-half months later in December 2019.
The Canary is a left-wing news website based in the United Kingdom. While focusing on UK political affairs, it also has a "Global" section, a satire section, and "Science", "Environment", and "Health" sections. Founded in 2015 by Kerry-Anne Mendoza and her wife Nancy Mendoza, the website increased in popularity around the time of the 2017 United Kingdom general election. It was initially funded through a combination of advertising and a group of about 1500 supporters, but by 2020 had moved to a largely reader-funded model.
Theresa May's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 13 July 2016 when she accepted an invitation of Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding David Cameron, and ended on 24 July 2019 upon her resignation. May's premiership was dominated by Brexit, terrorist attacks in Westminster, the Manchester Arena and London Bridge, the Grenfell Tower fire, and the Salisbury poisonings. As prime minister, May also served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, and as Minister for the Civil Service. She also served as Leader of the Conservative Party.
Jeremy Corbyn was elected as Leader of the Opposition in September 2015, following the resignation of Ed Miliband after Labour's defeat at the 2015 general election. Disillusioned by a lack of a left-wing voice in the 2015 Labour Party leadership contest, Corbyn stood on an anti-austerity platform. Of the candidates who stood, Corbyn received the fewest parliamentary nominations. Many who nominated him said they had done so not to support his candidacy, but to widen the debate by including a socialist voice. However, Corbyn soon became the frontrunner and was elected with a landslide of 59%.
Thelma Doris Walker is a British politician, formerly the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Colne Valley from 2017 to 2019. Before her political career, she worked as a teacher for 34 years and later as an independent consultant.
Change UK, founded as The Independent Group (TIG) and later The Independent Group for Change, was a British centrist, pro–European Union political party, which lasted for ten months in 2019. Established in February and formally recognized as a party in May, it was dissolved in December after all its MPs lost their seats at that year's general election. Its principal aim was a second withdrawal referendum on European Union membership, in which it would campaign to remain in the EU. On economic issues it expressed a commitment to the social market economy.
A referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement, also referred to as a "second referendum", a "rerun", a "people's vote", or a "confirmatory public vote", was proposed by a number of politicians and pressure groups as a way to break the deadlock during the 2017–19 Parliament surrounding the meaningful vote on the Brexit deal.
2010s in United Kingdom history refers to significant political and societal historical events in the United Kingdom in the 2010s, presented as a historical overview in narrative format.