ONE the busiest reporters in the broadcasting business these past few weeks has been Laura Kuenssberg – BBC TV’s chief political correspondent. In fact, the on-screen presence of Laura, who had her early broadcasting training in Glasgow, was so ubiquitous in the period between the General Election and the formation of a coalition government that journalist, David Aaronovitch, coined the term ‘Kuenssberg-vision’.
Laura, who has generated 24,000 followers on Twitter, is back home in Scotland with her family for the bank holiday weekend as part of a well-earned break. And she featured in a two-page profile by Jim McBeth in the Scottish Daily Mail on Saturday.
If BBC political editor, Nick Robinson, moves on to other things, including speculation he is destined for BBC Newsnight or BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, Laura is being strongly tipped to replace him. Robinson has pointed out: ”Laura has established herself as one of the big players. She is hugely influential. Ask anyone in the political world.”
Laura is the daughter of Scottish businessperson, Professor Nick Kuenssberg and his wife, Sally. She was born in Italy, while her father was assigned there by Coats Viyella, but returned to Scotland as a child and grew up in Glasgow, with her brother and sister.
She studied history at Edinburgh University, followed by a journalism course at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where she worked as an intern on an NBC political programme.
She worked for local radio and then cable television in Glasgow, before joining BBC North East and Cumbria a decade ago, and won a regional Royal Television Society award for her work in home affairs
After a brief stint at Channel 4 news, she returned to the BBC seven years ago and now reports for BBC News, including BBC One bulletins, The Daily Politics and BBC News Channel.
Laura, who lives in London with her husband, lists her interests on her Facebook page as Irn Bru, Partick Thistle and The West Wing.
In 1999, her mother earned the CBE for services to child welfare and justice through her work in chairing the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
