Who is Laura Kuenssberg?
British journalist Laura Juliet Kuenssberg, born in Italy on August 8, 1976, is the first woman to succeed Nick Robinson as the BBC’s political editor.
Her father, Nick Kuenssberg OBE, was an executive in the British thread producer the Coats Group, therefore she came from a position of influence.
Grandpa Laura was Dr. Ekkehard von Kuenssberg, the German-born founder and president of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Her maternal grandfather, Lord Robertson, was a Supreme Court justice.
Her mother, Sally Kuenssberg, was honoured with a CBE in the 2000 New Year’s Honours for her service in the field of children’s services.
Laura and her sister Joanna, a career diplomat who served as the United Kingdom’s High Commissioner to Mozambique from 2014 until 2018, spent their childhood in Glasgow.
Laura Kuenssberg and Her Family
Joanna, Laura’s older sister by three years, was born in Lima, Peru, due to her father’s work travels. After graduating from the prestigious Laurel Park School for Girls, Laura pursued her undergraduate degree in history at the University of Edinburgh.
After that, Laura moved to the United States, specifically Washington, DC, to pursue a career in journalism.
Once back in the UK, Laura began reporting for Channel 4 as well as working for local radio and cable TV stations in Glasgow.
In March of 2000, she found work at BBC North East and Cumbria.
Eventually, Laura was promoted to chief political correspondent at the Beeb, where she oversaw the network’s coverage of the 2010 General Election and the subsequent formation of the Coalition Government under David Cameron.
As of September 2011, Laura is ITV News’ business editor, and she made her debut on News At Ten in August of 2013.
READ MORE: Who is James Kelly? How is he related to Laura Kuenssberg?
Laura Kuenssberg and Her Career as A Journalist
After leaving the BBC in 2012, she came back in February 2014 to host Newsnight, then in July 2015 she became the BBC’s first female political editor.
She has spoken out as an authoritative figure during the Brexit process, and she has supported the Sun’s front page bombshell that the Queen has expressed Eurosceptic views.
She announced her departure from her position as BBC Political Editor in December 2021 in favour of a “senior presenting and reporting post” within the BBC.
After the revelation that Andrew Marr will be stepping down as host of BBC One’s main Sunday morning politics show in September 2022, Laura was named to the position in March 2022.
Laura is married to James Kelly, a management consultant who attended both Harvard and Edinburgh.
Laura Kuenssberg Net Worth
After covering the 2022 UK local elections for the BBC, Laura resigned in May 2022 with an annual salary of between £200,000 and £249,999.
She told Radio Times, “I’m well rewarded for a profession I massively adore doing.” when asked about her salary. I feel like I’m being compensated fairly.
In September of 2022, she will begin working on the Sunday political show, for which she will receive a significant salary increase.
Marr’s salary ranged from £335,000 to £340,000.
It seems unlikely, however, that Laura will receive the same remuneration as her predecessor, which would amount to a raise of £75,000.
Instead, she will likely see a significant increase in salary, perhaps in the tens of thousands.
Laura stated of her new position, “I couldn’t be more happy.
For decades, Sunday mornings have been set aside for discussing the issues that matter to us and for questioning and hearing from our elected officials.
It’s a privilege to preside over that discussion in the 2020s.
Laura Kuenssberg Controversy
She has been accused of violating election law because she broadcast the alleged results of postal votes.
During a discussion on BBC’s Politics Live on the influence of bad weather on voter turnout, Laura claimed to have received tips from those with knowledge of early ballots cast in the general election.
She then detailed the information she had gathered from various sources regarding the tallied results of mail-in ballots.
On the Daily Politics programme in January 2016, Laura facilitated the resignation of Labour MP Stephen Doughty from his position as shadow foreign minister.
Seumas Milne, communications director for the Labour Party, filed a formal protest to the BBC about the decision, but it was dismissed.
A petition on 38 Degrees claimed that Laura was prejudiced towards Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and demanded for her to be fired after the 2016 local elections.
As a result of the sexist and abusive remarks made towards the journalist, 38 Degrees ultimately decided to pull the post.
The BBC Trust found in January 2017 that in an interview with Corbyn in November 2015, Laura had violated the broadcaster’s impartiality and accuracy criteria.
Critics claim that the section on Laura’s News at Six was skewed to make it seem like Corbyn was against police using firearms in response to tragedies like the Paris attacks.
While airing in September of this year, Kuenssberg’s portrayal of Omar Salem, a father who addressed the prime minister, Boris Johnson, over the government’s treatment of the NHS, was met with backlash.
The day before the General Election, she caused a stir when she said on air that the postal votes submitted by voters were “looking quite gloomy for Labour in a number of places of the country,” a claim that was seen by both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.
By making such a statement, Laura may have committed a criminal offence, as the Electoral Commission prohibits people from accessing postal votes before election day and from making predictions about the outcome of an election based on votes cast after polls close.
As a result, the content was taken down from all streaming services.
As with many others, Kuenssberg has gotten herself into trouble on Twitter.
As with other prominent journalists, she was criticised for tweeting falsely that a Labour activist had attacked a Conservative Party advisor without first verifying her claims.
Later footage disproved her claims, and she deleted the offending tweet.
When the Dominic Cummings incident emerged in May 2020, Kuenssberg tweeted multiple assertions from an unidentified source close to Cummings regarding the purpose of his trip, prompting claims that he was defending Cummings or repeating his side of the story.
There was a flood of complaints to the BBC, but the corporation stood with Kuenssberg.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings