Emma Barnett has announced she is stepping down from her role as one of the hosts on BBC Newsnight.
The broadcaster explained she was leaving the current affairs programme after three years to concentrate on hosting Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour, among other projects.
In a Twitter thread, she said: “After 3 very enjoyable years presenting Newsnight, I have made the decision to leave the programme. This is in part due to my role fronting Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, which I’m thrilled to say is reaching more listeners than ever, and I have many more plans for.
“It is also because there are other projects in the pipeline to which I wish to dedicate more attention.
“The biggest thanks go to my editors, the endlessly energetic team, my guests, and of course, our viewers. It’s been an absolute blast.”
Emma confirmed she had made her final appearance on Newsnight earlier this week.
It saw her schooling business minister Paul Scully as he struggled to defend Boris Johnson over partygate.
She won praise on Twitter for telling the government minister he “doesn’t get to edit Newsnight” after he’d suggested the host she couldn’t spend “entirety of your programme talking about” the reaction to the release of Sue Gray’s initial report into the Downing Street parties.
Emma joined the Newsnight team in 2019 amid a reshuffle of presenting staff, which saw Emily Maitlis promoted to lead host following the departure of Evan Davis.