Laura Kuenssberg and Clive Myrie to front BBC’s election night coverage

The BBC has announced that Clive Myrie and Laura Kuenssberg will lead its election night coverage in July.

They will replace Huw Edwards, who anchored the broadcaster’s election night coverage in 2019 and took over from David Dimbleby, who had filled the role since 1979.

Kuenssberg, who hosts a weekly Sunday morning politics programme, and Myrie, the Mastermind presenter and BBC newsreader, will also be joined by Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor

It is the first time a duo has been chosen to front the BBC election night coverage.

Edwards has not been on air since being suspended last July, following reports claiming that he paid a young person for sexually explicit images. He formally left the BBC last month after medical advice from doctors.

‘A fresh, dynamic team’

Kuenssberg is a former political editor of the BBC, having held the role between 2015 and 2022. Myrie, who first joined the BBC in 1987, presented part of the corporation’s coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II and was central to its reporting of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Deborah Turness, the BBC chief executive, said it had “assembled a fresh, dynamic team to bring insight, experience – and perhaps a little wit – to audiences for the whole election night and beyond”, adding: “A truly fantastic line-up of journalistic talent, headed by Laura and Clive, will bring voters the results and help make sense of them.”

Prof Sir John Curtice and Jeremy Vine, who will be running the “swingometer” from Cardiff, are also part of the BBC election night line-up.

The corporation also confirmed that it had invited leaders of the seven biggest political parties to participate in televised debates. It comes after reports that smaller parties, including the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, faced being left out of televised debates in favour of head-to-head contests between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.