Vicki Young set to be announced as new presenter of Politics Live after BBC veteran Jo Coburn stepped down after 14 years

When BBC veteran Jo Coburn announced she was stepping down as Politics Live presenter after 14 years, it left ambitious colleagues coveting the plum role.

But The Mail on Sunday understands that it is Vicki Young who is set to be announced as the new presenter of the BBC’s flagship political programme.

Ms Young, 54, is the deputy political editor at the BBC and is a regular stand-in for Coburn. 

An insider said: ‘It’s all been sewn up for Vicki to take over Politics Live. She’s very talented and the bosses really like her but it has left some of her more ambitious colleagues spitting feathers.’

The Cambridge-educated presenter is a BBC lifer having begun her career at BBC Wales before becoming a correspondent at BBC Breakfast and later chief political correspondent.

She was favourite to take over Laura Kuenssberg as the corporation’s political editor in 2022, but ruled herself out of the race as her late husband Rae Stewart was being treated for cancer, before his death at age 56 in 2023.

Young’s elevation is likely to make her one of the BBC’s highest earners, among the likes of political editor Chris Mason, who is on £260,000 a year, Newsnight presenter Victoria Derbyshire on £295,000 and Radio 4 presenter Nick Robinson on up to £349,000.

Politics Live, formerly Daily Politics, which airs on weekday lunchtimes, was hosted by Andrew Neil from 2003 to 2020, and is seen as one of the BBC’s political crown jewels.

Ms Coburn, 57, announced this month that she was leaving the BBC after 28 years. The journalist, who joined as a Westminster correspondent, said: ‘What a privilege to have been in the hot seat of the Daily Politics and then Politics Live covering the tumultuous events of the last decade or so.’

She will leave the BBC at the end of May. The corporation was approached for comment.