Myrie and Kuenssberg to lead BBC election coverage

Clive Myrie and Laura Kuenssberg will lead the BBC's election night coverage, the corporation has announced.

They jointly replace previous election night anchor Huw Edwards, who left the BBC in April.

Kuenssberg, who fronts a Sunday morning politics programme, will become the BBC's first female election night anchor.

She will co-host with Myrie, who presents BBC News bulletins as well as quiz show Mastermind.

The pair will be assisted by the BBC's political editor Chris Mason.

Nick Robinson and Rachel Burden will host the radio coverage with Henry Zeffman on BBC Radio 4 and 5 Live.

Myrie and Kuenssberg will be joined by several BBC News presenters for election night.

Reeta Chakrabarti will be analysing the results as they come in, and be based in the London studio with the pair.

Jeremy Vine – and the famous swingometer – will be broadcasting from Cardiff, Kirsty Wark from Glasgow, and Andrea Catherwood from Belfast.

Professor Sir John Curtice, will also be on hand throughout the night to offer knowledge and insight.

Fiona Bruce, Victoria Derbyshire, Naga Munchetty, Nick Watt, and Alex Forsyth will be among the BBC presenters and correspondents reporting from key locations around the country.

Sophie Raworth and Jon Kay will take over presenting duties on Friday morning, with deputy political editor Vicki Young alongside them as the shape of the country’s new political map becomes clearer, the BBC said.

Dedicated TV results programmes in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales will be hosted by Martin Geissler, Mark Carruthers, and Nick Servini.

The BBC confirmed the line-up on Tuesday ahead of the general election on 4 July.

Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News, praised the "truly fantastic line-up of journalistic talent".

"Headed by Laura and Clive," Turness said the team "will bring voters the results and help make sense of them".

"We’ve assembled a fresh, dynamic team to bring insight, experience - and perhaps a little wit – to audiences for the whole election night and beyond."

The corporation also confirmed it has invited the leaders of the seven biggest political parties to participate in televised debates.

The election night was previously only presented by one anchor - with Edwards taking over from David Dimbleby for the 2019 election.

But Edwards was suspended from the BBC in July last year following newspaper reports claiming he paid a young person for sexually explicit images.

He has not been on air since, and in April it was announced he was leaving the BBC after taking medical advice from his doctors.