Introduction
Allegra Stratton (born 25 November 1980) is a British journalist and writer. From January 2016 to April 2020, she was the National Editor of ITV News. Earlier, she worked for four years as a political editor on BBC Two's Newsnight. She has also co-presented Peston on Sunday with Robert Peston from May 2016 to 2018.
Early life
Stratton attended Chiswick Community School and Latymer Upper School in west London and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where she studied archaeology and anthropology.
Career
Stratton worked as a producer for the BBC, on the foreign desk at The Times and wrote for The Independent and the New Statesman.
She then joined The Guardian as a political correspondent, presenting the newspaper's "Politics Weekly" podcast with journalist Tom Clark.
During this period she wrote the novel Muhajababes, which explores the youth culture of the Middle East, which addressed the contradictions of the modern life of young adults in Muslim societies.
Stratton returned to the BBC on 20 February 2012, as political editor of Newsnight, replacing Michael Crick who left to become a political correspondent for Channel 4.
In November 2015, it was announced that Stratton was leaving the BBC to join ITV News as its National Editor. Stratton made her first appearance on ITV's News at Ten in January 2016. She co-presented Peston on Sunday on ITV with Robert Peston until May 2018.
Stratton quit ITV News in April 2020 to become Director of Strategic Communications at the Treasury under Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Six months later, in October 2020, she was appointed No 10 Downing Street's new press secretary.
Personal life
Allegra Stratton is married to James Forsyth, political editor of The Spectator magazine. The couple lives in Canonbury, Islington, North London.
Publications
In June 2008, Stratton published Muhajababes with Melville House Publishing (ISBN 1-933633-50-6)