Who is Laura Kuenssberg and how much does she earn? – The Scottish Sun
LAURA Kuenssberg is a force to be reckoned with in the world of political journalism.
She is known for her work at the BBC thanks to her long career at the broadcaster.
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Who is Laura Kuenssberg?
Laura Juliet Kuenssberg was born on August 8, 1976 in Italy. She is a British journalist and the first woman ever to hold the position of political editor at the BBC, succeeding Nick Robinson.
She comes from an influential family – her father, Nick Kuenssberg OBE, worked for the British yarn manufacturer Coats Group.
Laura’s grandfather was the German-born founder and president of the Royal College of General Practitioners (GPs), Dr. Ekkehard von Kuenssberg.
While her maternal grandfather, Lord Robertson, was a Supreme Court judge.
Her mother, Sally Kuenssberg, worked in childcare and received a CBE for this in the 2000 New Year Honors.
Laura grew up in Glasgow with her brother and her diplomat sister Joanna, who was the UK High Commissioner to Mozambique from 2014 to 2018.
She studied history at the University of Edinburgh, where she met her future husband.
Laura then traveled to the USA and Washington DC, where Laura studied journalism before getting a job at NBC News.
After returning to the UK, Laura worked for local radio and cable TV stations in Glasgow – she also worked as a reporter for Channel 4.
She then got a job with BBC North East and Cumbria in March 2000.
Laura was later appointed as the Beeb’s chief political correspondent, leading the channel’s coverage of the May 2010 general election and the subsequent formation of David Cameron’s coalition government.
In September 2011, Laura left the BBC to take up the newly created role of business editor at ITV News and broadcast her first News At Ten segment in August 2013.
In February 2014 she returned to the BBC to present Newsnight – and was appointed political editor in July 2015. This made her the first woman to hold this role at the organization.
She was a voice of authority during Brexit – and supported The Sun’s bombshell front page which claimed the Queen had expressed Eurosceptic views.
In December 2021, she confirmed that she was stepping down as the BBC’s political editor to take up a “senior presenting and reporting role” at the corporation.
This was followed in March 2022 by the announcement that Laura would replace Andrew Marr as presenter of BBC One’s leading Sunday morning politics show from September.
How much does Laura make?
As of 2023, Laura is expected to earn between £305,000 and £309,999 a year for her job
She receives this salary for the Sunday Politics Show.
Speaking about her role, Laura said in a statement: “I couldn’t be happier.
“For decades, Sunday morning has been the moment to explore the events that shape us and to challenge and listen to our politicians.
“It is an honor to chair this conversation in the 2020s.”
Is Laura Kuenssberg married and does she have children?
Laura is married to management consultant James Kelly, who also studied in Edinburgh.
After graduating, he moved to the United States to study at Harvard University.
The couple now live together in east London and have no children.
Has Laura been involved in any controversy?
Laura was accused of violating election law by discussing alleged postal voting results live on television.
Speaking to BBC’s Politics Live, Laura claimed to have received tips from people with knowledge of early votes in the general election during a discussion about bad weather affecting voter turnout.
She then described what sources had told her about the results of the postal votes that had already been counted.
In January 2016, Laura helped persuade Labor MP Stephen Doughty to publicly announce his resignation as Shadow Foreign Secretary on the Daily Politics programme.
The move prompted an official complaint from Seumas Milne, the Labor Party’s communications director, which was rejected by the BBC.
After the 2016 local elections, a petition on 38 Degrees accused Laura of being biased against Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn – and called for her sacking.
It was later retracted by 38 Degrees due to sexist and hateful comments about the journalist.
In January 2017, the BBC Trust ruled that Laura had breached the broadcaster’s impartiality and accuracy guidelines in an interview with Corbyn in November 2015.
It said Laura’s News at Six section had been edited to falsely give the impression that Corbyn disagreed with the use of firearms by police in incidents such as the Paris terror attacks.
In September 2019, Kuenssberg received criticism for her portrayal of Omar Salem, a father who confronted Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the government’s treatment of the NHS.
On December 11, 2019, the day before the general election, she caused controversy when she claimed on television that postal votes cast, which appeared to have been seen by both the Labor and Conservative parties, were “quite common in many parts of Labor.” looked bleak for Labour”. the country”.
With this statement, Laura violated the Electoral Commission’s guidelines, as viewing postal votes before election day and predicting election results based on votes cast before polls closed can be a criminal offense.
As a result, the footage was pulled from all platforms.
Kuenssberg has also gotten into trouble on Twitter.
She was criticized along with other major journalists for incorrectly tweeting that a Labor activist had hit a Conservative Party adviser without confirmation.
Footage was later released showing this was not true. She later apologized and retracted her tweet.
In May 2020, as the Dominic Cummings scandal broke, Kuenssberg tweeted several statements from an anonymous source close to Cummings about the nature of his trip – leading to accusations that Kuenssberg was defending or repeating his side of the story.
This led to a significant number of complaints to the BBC, which defended Kuenssberg’s actions.
