Radio and TV host Mishal Husain to leave BBC

Husain will have spent 27 years at the BBC

Radio 4 Today programme co-presenter Mishal Husain is to leave the BBC in the New Year, the corporation has announced.

Husain has been a host on the station's flagship current affairs morning show for 11 years, and also fronted the broadcaster's recent UK general election debates.

Husain, who joined the BBC in 1998, has also presented the BBC News at Six and Ten, as well its news channels.

She will join Bloomberg to host a new interview series and be editor-at-large of its Weekend Edition.

The 51-year-old said in a statement that her BBC career had "involved many memorable moments, going to places I would never otherwise have seen, witnessing history and being part of live, national conversation on Radio 4".

She added: "I will always be grateful for the opportunities the BBC gave me, and wish the organisation and everyone who is part of it the very best."

Husain will host a new interview series for Bloomberg

'Formidable journalist'

Owenna Griffiths, editor of the Today programme, described Husain as "not only a formidable journalist and first-rate presenter" but also "an extremely generous and thoughtful colleague".

"It has been my great privilege to work alongside her and, along with the Today team, I'll miss her enormously but wish her all the very best in her new venture," she said.

Husain is one of five presenters on the Today programme’s current roster, alongside Justin Webb, Nick Robinson, Emma Barnett and Amol Rajan.

She earned between £340,000 and £344,999 in the last financial year for about 140 shifts presenting Today, 20 days reading the news on BBC One, plus Today’s debates and other projects.

In a statement issued by her new employer, she said: "I am delighted to be fronting a new interview show that will reach audiences in different formats as part of the exciting plans for Bloomberg Weekend Edition.

"Ours is an ever more complex world but the desire for thoughtful conversations crosses all borders. I look forward to working with a new team at Bloomberg - the place which gave me my first job in journalism."

Mishal Husain with Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak following their general election leaders' debate

Husain began her journalism career at Bloomberg Television in the 1990s before joining the BBC.

During her career at the corporation, she also reported from countries ranging from the US to Pakistan.

She interviewed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, after their engagement in 2017; and was part of the coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, and the King's coronation.

She also made documentaries about the lives of the late Queen, Mahatma Gandhi and Malala Yousafzai, as well as the Arab Spring in 2011.

Earlier this year, the British presenter's book, Broken Threads: My Family From Empire to Independence, became a Sunday Times bestseller.

The Guardian said it saw her weave "a tender tapestry with the stories of her four grandparents in the new state of Pakistan".

The news of Husain's departure from the BBC comes five months after Martha Kearney left the Today programme.