BBC icon Jo Coburn has decided to leave the broadcaster after 28 years.
The veteran presenter, 57, joined the BBC in 1997 as a Westminster reporter and has become one of the BBC’s most senior politics presenters, covering a whopping eight general elections and six chancellors’ budgets. She has hosted Politics Live since 2018.
She started presenting BBC Two’s Daily Politics with Andrew Neil before becoming its lead presenter for Politics Live when it replaced Daily Politics. She has also appeared on BBC News, Radio 4’s Today show and delivered bulletins for the BBC’s Six and Ten programmes.
The journalist said it was “time to move on” and hand over the reigns to someone else. Jo will leave the organisation in May and her replacement is not yet known, but the BBC said a new presenter will be “announced in due course.”
(Image: Jo_Coburn/X)
She said of her exit: “What a privilege to have been in the hot seat of the Daily Politics and then Politics Live covering the tumultuous events of the last decade or so. It’s time to move on and hand over to someone else but I’ve loved it all, especially the people I’ve worked with and the hundreds of guests who’ve kept me company in the studio every day.”
Hilary O’Neill, the BBC’s Executive Editor of Politics, says: “Jo has shaped Politics Live into the programme it is today where viewers tune in knowing they’ll be expertly guided through the biggest political stories, whilst making them accessible and entertaining. Jo is a forensic interviewer and engaging presenter who draws on her deep knowledge of politics to challenge ministers on the issues that matter most to the public. She will be greatly missed by both the audience and her colleagues.”
(Image: BBC)
Richard Burgess, Director of News Content, said: “I want to thank Jo for her immense contribution to our coverage, and on a career where she has been at the heart of political journalism for almost 30 years. Millions of viewers have benefited from Jo’s incisive interviewing and her ability to host intelligent discussion and debate from across the political spectrum. We wish her all the best for the future.”
Coburn has appeared on Radio 4’s The World This Weekend and on BBC Breakfast. During her time at Breakfast, she covered huge international events, such as the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.
She has also hosted general debates on the BBC, such as in 2015 when she hosted a Question Time-style debate for former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage.
She also visited Afghanistan in 2008 as part of the press pack that joined then-PM Gordon Brown and to Beijing for the final days of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
She is married to former Downing Street head of strategic communications Mark Flanagan. The pair share two children and love in West London.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
