BBC’s Aasmah Mir and Channel 4 News’ Cathy Newman among latest Times Radio signings

Journalist and presenter Aasmah Mir has left the BBC after almost 20 years to join News UK’s Times Radio, which will launch this summer.

Channel 4 News’ Cathy Newman is also joining the station, saying she looks forward to “quizzing politicians, chewing over the week’s news and attempting to set the world to rights every Friday evening” on the drivetime show.

Newman will continue to present on Channel 4 News from Monday to Thursday.

Mir left BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live programme after six years this weekend, saying it was “time for something new”.

She will join Times Radio launch director Stig Abell, also editor of the Times Literary Supplement, to present the breakfast show on Mondays to Thursdays.

Abell said the show’s agenda would be “straightforward: provide provocative, well-informed, entertaining and useful discussion on the key stories of the day, informing the national conversation”.

Mir said: “The Times is a byword for quality journalism and this is an enviable opportunity to create compelling radio from scratch.

“Our listeners will be just like me – I want to be informed but I want warmth too and a programme fit for 2020.”

Times Radio will be an ad-free digital talk station, using journalists from the Times and Sunday Times alongside production expertise from News UK stablemate Wireless, which runs Talkradio, Talksport and Virgin Radio.

Other new presenters announced today include BBC Radio 4 presenter and reporter Luke Jones and investigative journalist and documentary maker Jenny Kleeman who will together present the breakfast show on Fridays to Sundays.

Times Red Box editor Matt Chorley will step back from writing the newsletter to present a mid-morning politics show aimed at “bringing Westminster to life”.

Former BBC News deputy political editor John Pienaar revealed in February he was joining the station to present the drivetime show on Mondays to Thursdays.

Time Radio programme director Tim Levell said the new signings would mean “warm, expert-led conversation through the day” on the station.

Picture: News UK