Allegra Stratton worked for ITV as national editor of ITV News from 2016 to 2018 and co-presenter of Peston on Sunday from 2016 to 2018.
21 Facts About Allegra Stratton
2.
Allegra Stratton was Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Director of Strategic Communications at the Treasury from April until October 2020, when she became the press secretary for 10 Downing Street.
3.
Allegra Stratton resigned from this post in December 2021 after footage was released of her at a December 2020 press conference rehearsal, in which she joked with colleagues about a Christmas party that secretly took place at 10 Downing Street while the country was in a COVID-19 lockdown.
4.
Allegra Elizabeth Jane Stratton was born in Nottingham on 10 April 1980, one of four children born to a translator father and textile artist mother.
5.
Allegra Stratton grew up in the Chiswick area of London.
6.
Allegra Stratton was named after Allegra Byron, a daughter of the poet Lord Byron.
7.
Allegra Stratton attended Chiswick Community School and Latymer Upper School, an independent school in the Hammersmith district of London, before studying archaeology and anthropology at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
8.
Allegra Stratton worked as a producer for the BBC Television current affairs programme Newsnight, on the foreign desk at The Times, and wrote for The Independent and the New Statesman.
9.
Allegra Stratton then joined The Guardian as a political correspondent, presenting the newspaper's Politics Weekly podcast with journalist Tom Clark.
10.
In 2006, Allegra Stratton published a non-fiction book, Muhajababes, that explored the youth culture of the Middle East and the contradictions of the modern life of young adults in Muslim societies.
11.
Allegra Stratton returned to the BBC on 20 February 2012, as political editor of Newsnight, replacing Michael Crick who left to become a political correspondent for Channel 4.
12.
The interviewee described feeling "humiliated" by Allegra Stratton, who misrepresented her as unemployed.
13.
Private Eye magazine reported that Allegra Stratton had chosen the single mother over several other interviewees offered, including a couple with four children who had lost their jobs and faced homelessness.
14.
In November 2015, the BBC announced that Allegra Stratton was leaving to join ITV News as its national editor.
15.
Allegra Stratton made her first appearance on ITV's News at Ten in January 2016 and co-presented Peston on Sunday with Robert Peston until April 2018, when she departed to spend weekends with her children.
16.
Allegra Stratton left ITV News in April 2020 to become Director of Strategic Communications at the Treasury under Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
17.
The January launch date was repeatedly pushed back due to the COVID-19 lockdowns and on 20 April it was announced that the briefings would be scrapped entirely, with Allegra Stratton instead becoming the spokesperson for the COP26 summit that was held in Glasgow in November 2021.
18.
Three hours later, Allegra Stratton resigned from her position as government spokesperson for the COP26 summit and apologised for her remarks which she asserted she would regret "for the rest of [her] days".
19.
Allegra Stratton is married to James Forsyth, former political editor of The Spectator magazine and current Political Secretary to the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
20.
In November 2020, Allegra Stratton told The Sunday Telegraph that she had voted for the Labour Party, the Green Party, and the Liberal Democrats in the past, but later supported Brexit and described herself as "a Johnson Tory".
21.
Allegra Stratton is said to be an ally and friend of Johnson's wife Carrie.