Who is Laura Kuenssberg and how much does she earn? – The Sun | The Sun
LAURA Kuenssberg is a name that is well recognised in the world of politics.
But who is she and how much does she earn? Here's everything you need to know.
Who is Laura Kuenssberg?
Laura Juliet Kuenssberg was born in Italy on August 8, 1976 – she is a British journalist and the first ever woman to hold the position of political editor at the BBC, after succeeding Nick Robinson.
She comes from a family of power – her dad, Nick Kuenssberg OBE, worked for British thread manufacturers the Coats Group.
Laura's grandad was the German-born founder and president of the Royal College of General Practitioners (GPs), Dr Ekkehard von Kuenssberg.
While her granddad on her mum's side, Lord Roberton, was a High Court judge.
Her mother, Sally Kuenssberg, worked in children's services and received a CBE for this in the 2000 New Year Honours.
Laura grew up in Glasgow with her brother and diplomat sister Joanna Kuenssberg, who is the High Commissioner of the UK to Mozambique.
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Joanna, who is three years older than Laura, was born in Lima, Peru, thanks to her dad's travelling job.
Laura went to Laurel Park School, an all-girls' private school, before doing a degree in history at University of Edinburgh.
She then left for Washington DC, USA, where Laura studied journalism before landing a job with NBC News.
After returning to Britain, Laura worked for local radio and cable TV channels in Glasgow – as well as did reporting work for Channel 4.
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She then landed a job with BBC North East and Cumbria in March 2000.
Laura was later made the chief political correspondent for the Beeb, and led the channel's coverage of the May 2010 General Election and subsequent formation of David Cameron's Coalition Government.
In September 2011, Laura left the BBC for the newly created role as business editor with ITV News, and broadcast her first News at Ten segment in August 2013.
She returned to the BBC to present Newsnight in February 2014 – and was appointed as the political editor in July 2015, making her the first woman to have that role at the organisation.
She's been a voice of authority during Brexit – and backed up The Sun's bombshell front page which claimed the Queen has voiced Eurosceptic views.
Laura is married to management consultant James Kelly, who also studied at Edinburgh – as well as Harvard.
How much does Laura earn?
Laura was listed as earning between £200,000 and £249,999 a year at The BBC – a role which she left in May 2022, after reporting on the 2022 UK local elections.
When asked about her income by Radio Times, she responded: "I’m well rewarded for a job I massively enjoy doing. I think I’m paid very fairly."
However, in March 2022 it was announced that she would be replacing Andrew Marr, in a full time role, as the host of BBC One's flagship Sunday morning politics show – which will start in September 2022.
And with her new role comes a handsome pay rise – Andrew Marr earned between £335,000 and £340,000 per year in this role.
However, it’s not expected that Ms Kuenssberg will take home the same salary, which would equate to a £75,000 pay rise.
Instead, it is expected that she will receive a pay rise in the tens of thousands.
Speaking on her new role, Laura said: “I couldn’t be more delighted. For decades, Sunday morning has been the moment to explore the events that shape us and to challenge and listen to our politicians.
“It’s an honour to take the chair for that conversation in the 2020s.”
Has Laura been involved in any controversy?
She has been accused of breaking electoral law by discussing supposed results of postal votes live on air.
Speaking to the BBC's Politics Live Laura Kuenssberg claimed to have received tip-offs from those with knowledge of early votes cast in the general election, during a discussion about poor weather impacting voter turnout.
She went on to describe what sources had told her about the results of postal ballots already counted.
In January 2016, Laura helped arrange for Labour MP Stephen Doughty to publicly announce his resignation as shadow foreign minister on the Daily Politics show.
The move prompted an official complaint from Seumas Milne, the Labour Party's director of communications, which was rejected by the BBC.
After the 2016 local elections, a petition on 38 Degrees accused Laura of being biased against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – and called for her dismissal.
It was later withdrawn by 38 Degrees, because of sexist and hateful comments made about the journo.
In January 2017, the BBC Trust ruled that Laura broke the broadcaster's impartiality and accuracy guidelines in an interview with Corbyn in November 2015.
It was said that Laura's News at Six segment was edited to wrongly give the impression that Corbyn disagreed with the use of firearms by police in incidents such as the Paris terror attacks.
In September 2019 Kuenssberg received criticism for her portrayal of Omar Salem, a father who confronted the prime minister, Boris Johnson, about the government's treatment of the NHS.
Later that year, on 11 December 2019, the day before the General Election, she drew controversy by claiming on air that submitted postal votes, apparently viewed by both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, were "looking pretty grim for Labour in a lot of parts of the country".
By saying this, Laura breach of guidelines set by the Electoral Commission – as viewing postal votes prior to polling day and predicting electoral outcomes based on votes cast prior to polls closing may be a criminal offence.
As a result, footage was withdrawn all platforms.
Kuenssberg has also found herself in hot water on Twitter – she was criticised, alongside other major journalists, for incorrectly tweeting that a Labour activist had punched a Conservative Party advisor, without verification.
Footage was later released showing this was untrue and she later apologised and retracted her tweet.
In May 2020, as the Dominic Cummings scandal broke, Kuenssberg tweeted several statements from an anonymous source close to Cummings about the nature of his trip – which led to allegations that Kuenssberg was defending, or repeating his side of the story.
This led to a significant volume of complaints to the BBC, who defended Kuenssberg's actions.
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