37 Facts About Laura Kuenssberg

Laura Juliet Kuenssberg was born on 8 August 1976 and is a British journalist who presents the BBC's Sunday morning politics show.

Laura Kuenssberg was succeeded as Political Editor of BBC News by Chris Mason.

Laura Kuenssberg succeeded Nick Robinson as Political Editor of BBC News in July 2015, and was the first woman to hold the position.

Laura Kuenssberg 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.

Laura Kuenssberg had previously served as the BBC's chief political correspondent and was the first Business Editor of ITV News.

Laura Kuenssberg was the chief correspondent for Newsnight between February 2014 and July 2015.

Laura Juliet Kuenssberg was born in Rome, Italy, on 8 August 1976 to Nick and Sally Kuenssberg.

Laura Kuenssberg grew up in Kelvinside, Glasgow, with her brother and sister, 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.

Laura Kuenssberg's Edinburgh-born father, Nick Kuenssberg, was a businessman, investor and academic; and her mother worked in children's services and received an OBE for this in the 2000 New Year Honours.

Laura Kuenssberg's paternal grandfather was German-born Ekkehard von Kuenssberg, a co-founder and president of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Laura Kuenssberg's elder sister, Joanna Kuenssberg, is an oil executive for Shell and a former diplomat who has served as high commissioner to Mozambique.

Laura 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.

Laura Kuenssberg reported for BBC One bulletins, Daily Politics and the BBC News channel.

Laura Kuenssberg took up the newly created role of business editor for ITV News.

Laura Kuenssberg contributed towards business reporting on ITV's current affairs strand, Tonight.

Between the 2017 United Kingdom general election and Brexit in 2020, Laura Kuenssberg co-presented the BBC's Brexitcast podcast alongside Katya Adler, Adam Fleming and Chris Mason, which was then retitled as the Newscast podcast.

On 28 May 2024, Laura Kuenssberg was announced as the host of the BBC's election-night coverage for the 2024 United Kingdom general election alongside Clive Myrie.

In October 2024, the BBC cancelled an interview Laura Kuenssberg had been due to conduct with former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after she accidentally sent him her briefing notes.

Laura Kuenssberg was appointed in July 2015 as the BBC's political editor, the first woman to hold the position.

In January 2016, Laura 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.

In December 2016, Laura 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.

Laura Kuenssberg initially decided not to report the comments because the BBC generally requires a story to have two sources before it can run.

On 20 December 2021, Laura 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.

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.

In January 2017, the BBC Trust ruled that a report in November 2015 by Laura Kuenssberg broke the broadcaster's impartiality and accuracy guidelines.

Laura Kuenssberg's purported answer to a question as broadcast in the report was in fact his reply to a more general question, and not specifically about that terrorist attack.

Laura 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.

In May 2020, as the Dominic Cummings scandal broke, Laura Kuenssberg tweeted several statements from an anonymous source close to Cummings about the nature of his trip.

Many suspected that the anonymous source was Cummings himself, which led to allegations that Laura Kuenssberg was defending, or at least uncritically repeating, his side of the story.

An interview with Boris Johnson in July 2020 led to over 100 complaints against Laura Kuenssberg being submitted to the BBC alleging that she had overly interrupted Johnson and was displaying bias against the government.

The BBC defended Laura Kuenssberg, stating that she had conducted the interview in a 'thorough, firm but fair manner.

The BBC defended Laura Kuenssberg, stating that she was summarising the position of the Chancellor and that its economics editor, Faisal Islam, had then given the opposite position.

At both the Conservative and Labour Party conferences in 2017, Laura Kuenssberg was accompanied by a security guard.

At a November 2017 gathering in London, Laura Kuenssberg said that internet trolls were attempting to silence her.

In November 2016, Laura Kuenssberg was awarded Broadcaster of the Year by the Political Studies Association.

At the British Journalism Awards organised by Press Gazette in December 2016, Laura Kuenssberg received the Journalist of the Year award.

Laura Kuenssberg was named in the Evening Standards 2019 list of the top 20 'most influential Londoners'.