Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel to leave BBC to launch podcast and host LBC show

BBC journalists Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel have announced they are leaving the corporation to launch a new podcast and host a radio show together on LBC.

Newsnight's Maitlis and outgoing North America editor Sopel have signed a deal with LBC's parent company Global.

Details haven't been revealed but Maitlis called it a "major new podcast" and Sopel said "opportunities like this just don't come along very often".

They follow Andrew Marr, who moved from the BBC to Global at the end of 2021.

Sopel and Maitlis worked together as co-hosts of the BBC's Americast podcast, which launched in 2020. Maitlis also made headlines and won awards for her 2019 interview with Prince Andrew.

On Twitter, she described the new daily podcast as an "amazing opportunity", adding that she and Sopel "are so thrilled Global is giving us this opportunity to be big and ambitious with this project".

She added: "Nevertheless, it will be a wrench to leave the BBC after 20 phenomenal years. I am so grateful for the opportunities I've had there."

Sopel tweeted: "Opportunities like this just don't come along very often. But am sad to leave the BBC which has been home for so long."

He described it as "a wrench" to be leaving the BBC after almost four decades.

"I leave with nothing but good feelings towards the Corporation, and wish all the best to my colleagues and friends there," he wrote.

Global said full details of the pair's new podcast would be announced later this year.