Laura Kuenssberg will step down as BBC’s political editor at Easter

Laura Kuenssberg will step down as the BBC‘s political editor at Easter and will take on a senior presenting and reporting role, the broadcaster has confirmed.

Kuenssberg, 45, is leaving after seven years in the role, having taken over from Nick Robinson in 2015. She became the first woman to hold the BBC political editor role and has covered a feverish period of politics including the Brexit referendum and two general elections.

Her future role at the corporation has yet to be revealed, but the BBC said she will take part in a range of news and current affairs projects across TV, radio and online and that more details will be announced in the new year. 

It was previously suggested said that Kuenssberg could become a presenter on Radio 4’s flagship Today programme as part of a major reshuffle of senior on-air staff.

However, she has also been mooted as a potential replacement for Andrew Marr on his Sunday morning politics show. 

Marr presented the last episode of his long-running Sunday politics programme yesterday and has left the BBC after 21 years. 

Kuenssberg’s replacement has yet to be announced but deputy political editor Vicki Young, Jon Sopel who recently left the North America editor post, and economics editor Faisal Islam have all been linked to the job.

In October, when rumours of Kuenssberg stepping down first emerged, Sopel was thought to be favourite to replace her. He was replaced in Washington, DC by BBC Scotland editor Sarah Smith. 

BBC director of news Fran Unsworth is also about to step down, after a clash over making former Huffington Post editor Jess Brammar executive news editor at the corporation.

Speaking after news of her change in role, Kuenssberg said today: ‘I’ve been so lucky to do the best daily reporting job in the business, with the best colleagues anyone could wish for. It’s been incredible to occupy the chair during a time of such huge change and to try to make sense of it for our viewers, listeners and readers online.

‘I’ll miss the daily drama, and our wonderful team in Westminster, immensely. But after nearly seven years and what feels like decades’ worth of headlines, it’s time for the next move.’

She added: ‘Anyway, I’m taking a break for Christmas, but there will be plenty of news to come over the next few weeks and while I’m still in the chair until April.’ 

Commanding a salary of more than £250,000 as political editor, Kuenssberg also found a new audience by appearing on the Brexitcast podcast throughout the UK’s Brexit negotiations with the EU. 

However, she has faced accusations of bias from across the political spectrum.

Last year, she was criticised after appearing to defend Dominic Cummings following reports that he had flouted lockdown rules.

Within 30 minutes of the story breaking, Kuenssberg had shared a rebuttal from an unnamed source claiming that the then Prime Minister’s senior aide’s 260-mile trip from London to his parents’ home in Durham was ‘within [the] guidelines’. 

In response to the Daily Mirror journalist who broke the story, Kuenssberg tweeted: ‘Source says his trip was within guidelines as Cummings went to stay with his parents so they could help with childcare while he and his wife were ill – they insist no breach of lockdown’. 

Her reply was immediately met by a chorus of condemnation from Labour-supporting trolls, with some accusing her of being a ‘mouthpiece for the Government’ and a ‘Tory stooge’.

Miss Kuenssberg was revealed to be Mr Cummings’s only regular contact, due to the broadcaster’s ‘special position’ in the country.

During his bombshell evidence session to MPs earlier this year, the former Downing Street aide said the political editor was the ‘main’ journalist he would speak to – but stressed they would only talk once every ‘three or four weeks’ to ‘give guidance on big stories’.

Mr Cummings then made a series of scathing claims about the Prime Minister’s handling of the Covid pandemic – including that Boris Johnson allegedly viewed the virus as a ‘scare story’ just a month before the first lockdown – in a sit-down interview with Miss Kuenssberg. 

During the 2019 General Election, Miss Kuenssberg, along with ITV’s political editor Robert Peston, tweeted the false claim that an aide of disgraced ex-minister Matt Hancock was punched by a Labour activist. 

The claim was quickly disproved by video evidence, forcing them to back down and apologise for the misleading information.

At the Labour Party conference in 2017, she had to be protected by security guards following abuse she had received for her reporting on Jeremy Corbyn. Critics claimed she was not neutral and treated the former Labour leader unfairly.

Miss Kuenssberg also attracted controversy earlier this year after a complaint was made against her over her use of the phrase ‘nitty gritty’ while discussing Downing Street business on the Brexitcast.

Anti-racism campaigners claim the term originates from the slave trade, and was reportedly banned by Sky Sports last year amid concerns. 

However, programme bosses threw out the complaint against Miss Kuenssberg.   

BBC director-general Tim Davie said: ‘Laura has been an outstanding BBC political editor throughout the most turbulent political times in living memory. Her incisive commentary, tough questioning and astute insight have guided our audiences through the last seven years.

‘She’s a superb interviewer and engaging presenter, and I’m thrilled that we are keeping her on our screens and airwaves. I’m looking forward to her next chapter.’

BBC director of news Fran Unsworth said: ‘Laura’s a born journalist and she’s done an amazing job as political editor. She’s an energetic and determined story-getter, who gets straight to the heart of the issue and knows exactly the right questions to ask.

‘Our political coverage would have been immeasurably poorer without Laura as political editor. We’re lucky to have her.’

Unsworth, who was on £342,000 a year, leaves the BBC news team during a period of crisis, with 250 jobs set to be slashed as it is revamped.

She was appointed to her current role in January 2018 and has worked at the BBC for more than four decades, having started her career in 1980 with Radio 1’s Newsbeat.

But the 63-year-old was in charge in some of the BBC’s most humiliating moments, having been held responsible for airing the police raid on Sir Cliff Richard’s home.

The decision in 2014 cost the broadcaster £2million after the singer won his privacy case against the corporation.

Unsworth will leave her current role as director of news and current affairs at the end of January.

BBC sources say the Corporation is keen to have an ‘impartial and safe’ figure succeed Ms Unsworth, not least because of the controversy surrounding the appointment to a senior news executive role last year of Jess Brammar, who had previously made highly critical comments about the Tory Government.