Former Labour adviser Ayesha Hazarika joins Evening Standard as Londoner diary editor

A former Labour Party special adviser has been appointed as the new editor of the Evening Standard’s daily diary section The Londoner.

Ayesha Hazarika worked for former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, ex-Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and the Labour MP Harriet Harman during her time in Westminster.

The political commentator and broadcaster, who regularly appears on newspaper round-ups and current affairs programmes, received an MBE for services to politics in 2016.

Hazarika, who already writes a column for the free newspaper, said: “I’m delighted to be joining the great team at the Evening Standard.

“I’ve always loved the paper ever since moving here from Glasgow more than 20 years ago, so it’s a huge privilege to be editing The Londoner.”

Hazarika will start her new job at the end of this month as current editor Charlotte Edwardes steps down after more than a year in the post.

Edwardes will continue at the paper as a senior feature writer and columnist.

Evening Standard editor George Osborne said: “Ayesha is one of the brightest new stars of British journalism. She is already a brilliant columnist for the Standard – and she will now be a formidable editor of our diary pages.

“She builds on the great work of Charlotte Edwardes, who will now be able to focus full-time on the interviews and columns that have rightly won her awards.

“If you want to know what’s really going on then it’s simple: you have to read the Londoner.”

Picture: BBC

Topics in this article : Evening Standard