Anushka Asthana

Anushka Asthana (born March 1980) is a British journalist, television presenter and author. She is the US editor for Channel 4 News, having previously been the deputy Political Editor of ITV News.

Anushka Asthana
Born	March 1980 (age 45) Scunthorpe, England, UK
Education	St John's College, Cambridge (BA)
Occupation(s)	Journalist, television presenter, author
Known for	ITV News Co-presenter of Peston Presenter of Today in Focus
Title	Deputy Political Editor, ITV News

Early life

Asthana was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, and raised in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester.^[1] Her parents, both doctors, moved to the United Kingdom from New Delhi, India in the 1970s.^[2] Asthana attended the private school Manchester High School for Girls and studied Economics at St John's College, Cambridge.^[3]

Career

Asthana joined The Observer as a general reporter in 2003 and spent several months at The Washington Post in 2006 on the Laurence Stern fellowship.^[1] Later she was a political correspondent for The Times before beginning to work for Sky News in 2013 as a political correspondent.^[4][5]

In succession to Patrick Wintour, Asthana was appointed in December 2015 as the joint political editor of The Guardian, in a job share arrangement with Heather Stewart which began in early 2016.^[6][7]

From 23 April 2017, Asthana covered the maternity leave of Allegra Stratton as the co-presenter of Peston on Sunday.^[8] Since September 2018, Asthana has co-presented ITV's Wednesday night flagship politics discussion programme Peston. That year she decided to leave her role as the joint political editor of The Guardian to present its new daily podcast Today in Focus, later being promoted to editor-at-large, replacing Gary Younge.^[9][10]

Asthana left The Guardian in 2021 to join ITN as the ITV News Deputy Political Editor to Robert Peston.^[11][12] She was later linked to the vacant job of BBC political editor, although she ultimately remained with ITV.^[13]

In April 2025, Channel 4 News announced that Asthana was joining their team from the August of 2025, becoming the US Editor.^[14]

She is the author of Taken As Red: The Truth About Starmer's Labour (ISBN 9780008697938), published in June 2025.^[15]