Why Chris Mason is the perfect replacement for Laura Kuenssberg

The BBC got itself into a right tangle over the appointment of a successor to Laura Kuenssberg. This wasn’t remotely surprising, of course. The last few years have seen an extraordinary exodus from the BBC: Andrew Neil, Andrew Marr, Jon Sopel, Emily Maitlis, John Pienaar, Katty Kay, Nick Bryant, Norman Smith, and many, many more. And before them, big beasts like John Humphrys, Jeremy Paxman and David Dimbleby. Two formidable generations of presenters and reporters have gone. Apart from Emily Maitlis and Katty Kay, all white, all male, all middle-aged or older.

On the other hand, there have also been some very good new faces, among them Nick Eardley, Emma Barnett, Ros Atkins (presenter of Outside Source on the News Channel), Christian Fraser (Beyond 100 Days and now The Context), Adam Fleming (Newscast) and Chris Mason (Radio 4’s Any Questions and Newscast), all in their 30s or 40s, most of whom have been given plenty of presenting experience on Five Live, Radio 4, Newsnight, BBC’s politics podcast, Newscast, and primetime shows on the News Channel.

So why did the BBC have such problems replacing Laura Kuenssberg after seven years? After all, they have had plenty of time to think about a replacement. The problem is not the talent available; it’s the job itself. Being the BBC’s Political Editor is an impossible job. It never used to be quite so demanding. Now the Political Editor often appears on the Today programme at 8.20 am to comment on a major interview with a leading minister or breaking story, then the Ten O’Clock News, sometimes other news bulletins in between, as well as podcasts and writing online blogs and tweets. This is ridiculous and exhausting to combine with any kind of family life, which many of the leading contenders, now in their 30s or 40s, were likely to battle with. Perhaps the BBC should have thought this through before getting rid of some of their best older news reporters.

There was an obvious solution, of course. Split up the job. It has changed beyond recognition since the 20th-century days of John Cole, Robin Oakley and Andrew Marr. It can’t be done by one person, so either scrap all the blogs, social media and podcasts, or change the job. One option might have been to have one Political Editor for radio and another for TV and they could sort out the blogs and articles for the website between them. Or, better still, get rid of all that flim-flam and just let the Political Editor do what their predecessors used to do: report on the big political stories of the day for the flagship programmes.

That raised another question. Was it time to redefine the nature of the job of the Political Editor? Covid cruelly exposed all the TV political editors: not only Laura Kuenssberg, but also Beth Rigby at Sky, Gary Gibbon at Channel 4 and Robert Peston at ITV. They were all out of their depth. They didn’t understand the science, the data or the epidemiology and breathed a collective sigh of relief when Partygate turned up on their doorstep, thanks to one or more obliging leakers.

The truth is they are happiest when they are leaked stories from within the Westminster bubble, preferably from bitter backbenchers, civil servants or Dominic Cummings. No science, no serious economics, none of the danger of reporting from war zones. Brexit was, of course, ideal. BBC News seemed so relevant. Here was a big story which divided the nation, which everyone was interested in and MPs were constantly queuing up to appear on TV. At one point it looked as if the likes of Anna Soubry, Chuka Umunna and Dominic Grieve might have to pay rent for all the studio time they took up.

But after Covid and Ukraine, doesn’t some of this political gossip seem a bit trivial? Pandemics and alleged war crimes are more moving — literally matters of life and death. Who pays for Boris Johnson’s flat to be decorated, how many civil servants have been fined by the Met or how much tax the Chancellor’s wife pays, are not. They may be meat and drink to the Westminster bubble and they may well win opposition parties huge votes in the local elections, but what happens when the next major war or pandemic comes round, as we all fear they will?

Now at last the BBC has made its choice and Jonathan Munro, Interim Director of BBC News, has done an excellent job. Chris Mason is the right age, 42 next week. Like his recent predecessors (Kuenssberg, Robinson and Marr), he doesn’t have a southern accent. Mason was born in Bradford and grew up in North Yorkshire. The son of two primary school teachers, educated at Skipton Grammar School, he has an ordinary feel, not as disastrously posh as Robin Oakley in the 1990s. Best of all, he is a little quirky. His nerdy specs, raised eyebrows and cheerful smile will endear him to impressionists and viewers alike. He is experienced. His first report from Westminster was in 2004. He has been a political correspondent for BBC News for a decade and has presented Radio 4’s Any Questions? since 2019. Mason has the right personality and credentials for the job. Whether the job is manageable for one person is another matter.

A Message from TheArticle

We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout the pandemic. So please, make a donation.