Sky News journalist Beth Rigby, 46, on the war in Ukraine, her distinctive red lipstick and bob, and swooning over Adele.
Your new interview show has started on Sky News and it won’t just be politicians. You must be looking forward to getting a straight answer for once…
That’s true. It might be easier to interview people who will actually answer the question, I hadn’t thought of that.
The way I explained it to a friend of mine was that I could be interviewing your favourite author, or a politician you do or don’t like, or maybe even the bloke who runs the supermarket chain you shop at.
It’s an attempt for me to break out of the straitjacket of politics and interview interesting people from all walks of life.
Any dream guests?
My wildest fantasy guests are Barack and Michelle Obama. They’d be good, wouldn’t they?
I’d love to interview JK Rowling too, as she very rarely does interviews.
I’m obsessed with Adele. I’d love to interview Adele but that might just be me giving her big love eyes.
Can you get star-struck when you’re interviewing some of the most important people in the country on a daily basis?
I could for Adele! Oh, actually, also when we went to Cop26 and Leonardo DiCaprio was there. It was like there were humans and then there was Leo.
Speaking to him about his campaign for the environment would be amazing.
So if you’re reading Metro, Leo, and you would like to come on, I’d love that.
You’re not moving away from the day job and in the three years you’ve been political editor at Sky News we’ve had Brexit, a global pandemic and now war in Europe. You’ve been kept busy…
Sometimes it does feel like decades of news have happened in three years. It’s astonishing.
I became political editor in April 2019. Then Theresa May was deposed. There was a leadership race that Boris Johnson won.
Then we had the prorogation of parliament and the Brexit wars.
Then we had a general election and this triumphant 80-seat majority, and we all said, ‘Right, we’re going to go back to sort of normal.’
Then within two months of that it was Covid and now it’s Russia.
How do you judge the government’s response?
I remember standing in parliament on the Tuesday before the invasion and I said that Europe is on the brink of war and people will look back on this time and ask if the government have met the moment because at the time they had imposed quite limited sanctions and people were quite critical.
Then, within 48 hours, all of these sanctions that everyone said could never happen happened.
I guess the big question is, where does it go now?
From the UK government’s perspective, it’s a slow strangle on the Russian economy, which they hope effects change because imposing a no-fly zone puts the UK and Europe into direct conflict with Russia.
Sky has its correspondents out in Ukraine. Has it been hard watching your colleagues in such danger?
I’ve felt very proud of my colleagues. It’s not just our team at Sky but the BBC and ITV and Channel 4.
You’ve seen some of the reports they’ve sent back and some of the danger they’ve personally been in.
Sky has moved some reporters back to Lviv, which I’m quite relieved about personally because Deborah Haynes, in particular, is a good friend of mine.
Has this horrible situation saved Boris Johnson’s job?
I was talking about this recently to a very senior Conservative politician who is not particularly a fan of Johnson.
The whole issue around ‘partygate’ and whether the prime minister gets a fixed penalty notice and a confidence vote in him, all of that has quite rightly completely dropped off the news agenda.
This particular politician said to me that they thought it was an issue delayed, not resolved.
My observation would be that the war and what’s happening has the chance to completely change the optics around government and leadership.
For Boris Johnson, he has this opportunity at the moment to be on a global stage, to work with allies, to meet the moment.
You became a bit of a style icon during the pandemic for your bob haircut and red lipstick…
Television is a visual medium and if you’ve got a look, people remember it. Beth Rigby? She wears red lipstick and she’s got a bob, it must be her.
It’s also a bit of a performance, right? When I’m not on telly I’ve got my trackies on and my glasses and I look a bit of a mess.
Are there hobbies you would like to take up when you hang up your reporter’s notebook?
I used to play the piano when I was a girl. We’ve got this beautiful piano now that no one ever plays because I don’t have the time so I’d like to take up the piano again.
I’d sort my garden out too and write some books. Then again, I might just lie on a sofa and drink gin.
Beth Rigby Interviews… is on Sky News at 9pm on Thursdays.
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