‘There aren’t many white, male anchors left,’ says British presenter Tom Bradby

LONDON: A top British news presenter has said “there aren’t many white, male anchors” left in the industry ahead of his hosting of UK election coverage.

Journalist and ITV presenter Tom Bradby made the remarks in an interview with Radio Times.

The News at Ten host said: “There aren’t many white male anchors left, dare I say, so I feel a bit less nervous about that (the lineup) than, possibly, I should.”

ITV’s rivals, including the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky News, recently announced a more diverse lineup of presenters for their election coverage than in previous years.

Radio Times asked Bradby, 57, whether he felt “exposed to the winds of change” as he might be considered “pale, male and stale.”

He replied: “I don’t particularly because that’s not my decision. That will be someone else’s decision.”

“You just put your head down, do a good job and try to be as nice as you can to everyone around you.

“As you get older you think: ‘Will I be remembered as somebody who was decent to work with?’ Because that’s what you want to be remembered for.

“It’s much easier to have that perspective when you’re older.”

Bradby presented ITV’s election night coverage in 2015, 2017 and 2019. He will be the only white, male presenter anchoring solo on election night on Britain’s major channels.

Statistics released in 2023 by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism revealed that white journalists comprised 94 percent of Britain’s journalistic workforce.

Black journalists in British newsrooms represented only 0.2 percent of the journalistic workforce despite making up 3 percent of the British population, according to the Reuters Institute’s data.

Asian Britons make up 2.5 percent of the journalistic workforce and 7 percent of the population.

A survey earlier this year by FT Strategies, the consulting arm of the Financial Times, found that diversity and inclusion in Britain’s news industry were “still not a priority in practice.”