Anushka Asthana (born 1980) is a British Indian journalist and television presenter, who is currently deputy political editor of

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since conti ...

Early life

Asthana was born in

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A pre ...

, Lincolnshire, and raised in

Stalybridge Stalybridge () is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 23,731 at the 2011 Census. Historic counties of England, Historically divided between Cheshire and Lancashire, it is east of Manchester city centre and no ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

. Her parents, both doctors, moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

from

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in the 1970s. Asthana attended the private school

Manchester High School for Girls Manchester High School for Girls is an English independent day school for girls and a member of the Girls School Association. It is situated in Fallowfield, Manchester. The head mistress is Helen Jeys who took up the position in September 2020 ...

and read

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

Career

Asthana joined ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' as a general reporter in 2003 and spent several months at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' in 2006 on the

Laurence Stern fellowship The Stern-Bryan fellowship is an annual summer internship program for British journalists at ''The Washington Post''. The internship was established in honour of ''Post'' journalist, Laurence Stern. A fund for the program is managed by the Nationa ...

. Later she was a political correspondent for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' before beginning to work for

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

in 2013 as a political correspondent. In succession to

Patrick Wintour Patrick Wintour (born 1 November 1954) is a British journalist and the diplomatic editor of ''The Guardian''. He was the political editor of ''The Guardian'' from 2006 to 2015 and was formerly the newspaper's chief political correspondent for t ...

, Asthana was appointed in December 2015 as the joint political editor of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', in a job share arrangement with

Heather Stewart Heather Stewart (born 28 September 1976) is an English journalist who is a special correspondent for ''The Guardian.'' She was formerly political editor of ''The Guardian'', and before that economics editor of ''The Observer'' and before that, ' ...

which began in early 2016. From 23 April 2017, Asthana covered the maternity leave of

Allegra Stratton Allegra Elizabeth Jane Stratton (born 10 April 1980) is a British former political aide, journalist, and writer who served as Downing Street Press Secretary under Boris Johnson from November 2020 to April 2021. Stratton worked for ''The Guardi ...

as the co-presenter of ''

Peston on Sunday ''Peston on Sunday'' was the flagship political discussion programme on British television network ITV, which was broadcast live on Sunday mornings from 10 am and rebroadcast after the ''ITV Weekend News'' on Sunday evening. The programme ...

''. Since September 2018, Asthana has co-presented ITV's Wednesday night flagship politics discussion programme '' Peston''. That year she decided to leave her role as the joint political editor of ''The Guardian'' to present its new daily podcast ''Today in Focus'', later being promoted to editor-at-large, replacing

Gary Younge Gary Andrew Younge , (born January 1969) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and academic. He was editor-at-large for ''The Guardian'' newspaper, which he joined in 1993. In November 2019, it was announced that Younge had been appointe ...

. Asthana left the Guardian in 2021 to join ''

'' as deputy political editor to

Robert Peston Robert James Kenneth Peston (born 25 April 1960) is an English journalist, presenter, and author. He is the political editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show '' Peston'' (previously '' Peston on Sunday''). From 2006 ...

. She was later linked to the vacant job of BBC political editor, although she ultimately remained with ITV.

References

External links

* *
Anushka Asthana
at The Guardian {{DEFAULTSORT:Asthana, Anushka 1980 births 21st-century British journalists Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge British people of Indian descent The Guardian people ITN newsreaders and journalists Living people People educated at Manchester High School for Girls People from Scunthorpe Sky News newsreaders and journalists