ITV political editor Robert Peston to deliver 2020 Hugh Cudlipp Lecture

ITV political editor Robert Peston will deliver the 21st annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture next year.

The free lecture will take place at City University, London, from 6.30pm on 6 March and is run by the London Press Club with sponsorship from the Daily Mirror.

The lecture is named after the former Mirror editor, described by the Press Club as “one of the pioneers of 20th century popular tabloid journalism”.

It gives a platform for a high-profile media figure to give their views on recent developments and predictions for the industry.

Trustees of the lecture said they had decided to invite Peston after agreeing that “both in terms of his record of ground-breaking journalism and his deep analysis of the economy in his books, Robert’s assessment of where the UK will be in the New Year – and how we got there – will be greatly anticipated”.

Peston hosts his own politics show on ITV each Wednesday night. He has previously worked as economics editor and business editor at the BBC and was previously political editor of the Financial Times.

Last year’s lecturer was Evening Standard editor and former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who used his speech to say that the influence of the press in Britain’s decision to leave the European Union has been “overstated”.

Previous lecturers include former BBC director general and Times editor James Harding, Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow, FT editor Lionel Barber, ex-Mirror editor Piers Morgan, and ex-Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.

The winner of the £1,000 Hugh Cudlipp Student Award, which recognises a student who has made an outstanding contribution to journalism, will also be announced during the evening.

The winning work must have explored “an issue of public interest or concern which, in the Cudlipp tradition, exemplifies lucid and graphic communication to a wide audience”, the Press Club said.

Picture: ITV