Ayesha Hazarika (born 15 December 1975) is a Scottish broadcaster, journalist and political commentator, and former political adviser to senior Labour Party politicians.
Early life
Hazarika was born in
Coatbridge
Coatbridge ( sco, Cotbrig or Coatbrig, gd, Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as ...
, Scotland, to parents of
Indian Muslim
Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Muslim ...
descent, and was educated at
Laurel Bank
__NOTOC__
Laurel Bank ( archaic gv, Cronk-y-Killey - ‘Killey’s Hill’) is situated between the 10th Milestone and 11th Milestone road-side markers on the primary A3 Castletown to Ramsey Road between Ballacraine and Glen Helen in the p ...
, a private all-girls school in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, Scotland. She studied law at the
University of Hull
The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull ...
.
Comedy
While working as a press officer at the Department of Trade and Industry, Hazarika was persuaded by a friend to take a comedy course run by comedian
Logan Murray
Logan Murray is a London-based stand-up comedian.
Murray has appeared on television shows including Peep Show (British TV series), Peep Show, Packet of Three (TV series), Packet of Three, London Underground, Pebble Mill, The Pallbearer's Revue, C ...
. She began to perform paid comedy gigs alongside her day job at the DTI. In 2003, Hazarika was a semi-finalist in the
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
stand-up comedy competition ''
So You Think You're Funny
So You Think You're Funny? (SYTYF) is an annual stand-up comedy competition for new acts. The competition began in 1988 in the United Kingdom.
The finals are held every August at The Gilded Balloon during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Past wi ...
''. However, her comedy took a back seat after 2007 as she focused on her developing career as a political adviser.
Hazarika made a return to stand-up in 2016, performing a show at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
inspired by her time in politics. In 2017, she brought a new show, ''State of the Nation'', to Edinburgh. In December 2018, Hazarika appeared on series 56 episode 10 of '' Have I Got News for You'' as
Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop (born 13 July 1960) is a British journalist, satirist, writer, broadcaster, and editor of the magazine ''Private Eye''. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes and has been a team captain on the BBC quiz show ...
's teammate; a role she reprised on 7 May 2020 during the "Lockdown" series.
Political adviser and commentator
From 2007 to 2015, Hazarika served as a political adviser to senior Labour Party figures, including
Harriet Harman
Harriet Ruth Harman (born 30 July 1950) is a British politician and solicitor who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham, formerly Peckham, since 1982. A member of the Labour Party, she has served in various Cabi ...
and
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband ...
, including during the
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
majority
A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster After leaving her role working for Harman in the aftermath of the 2015 general election, Hazarika was awarded an
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
in the
2016 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2016 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...
list for political service. It was reported at the time that Harman had proposed that Hazarika receive a
peerage
A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks.
Peerages include:
Australia
* Australian peers
Belgium
* Belgi ...
, but Miliband had elevated another former adviser to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
instead.
Describing herself as a "moderate" within the Labour Party, Hazarika urged
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
to resign after the Copeland by-election in early 2017. Following the 2017 general election, she acknowledged "I got it wrong on Corbyn", and urged "my fellow Labour colleagues to acknowledge Corbyn's success and to try to find peace with him".
As well as returning to stand-up comedy following her departure from Westminster, Hazarika has since become a regular commentator in the media, including as a columnist for ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...
'' and the London ''
Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
''. In September 2017, Hazarika was listed at Number 75 in the '100 Most Influential People on the Left' by commentator
Iain Dale
Iain Campbell Dale (born 15 July 1962) is a British broadcaster, author and political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. In 2005, he became the first openly gay Conservative candidate to c ...
. In 2018, she co-authored the book ''Punch and Judy Politics: An Insiders' Guide to Prime Minister’s Questions'' with fellow Labour speechwriter and special adviser Tom Hamilton.
In June 2020, she was one of the launch presenters of the
Times Radio
Times Radio is a British digital radio station owned by News UK. It is jointly operated by Wireless Group (which News UK acquired in 2016), ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''.
As of September 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audienc ...
digital radio station, presenting Saturday and Sunday drivetime shows.