Kate McCann (born 15 April 1988) is a British journalist and the political editor of Times Radio . Prior to this, she was political editor of TalkTV between 2022 and 2023, a political correspondent for Sky News between 2018 and 2022, and The Daily Telegraph's senior political correspondent between 2015 and 2018.
McCann was born on 15 April 1988 in London, England and has a brother. Their family motto is "Dare to be Different".[1][2][3][4] She attended a comprehensive school in Yorkshire,[5] then studied politics at Newcastle University, graduating in 2009.[4] While at university, she was a news editor for the student newspaper, The Courier.[6]
After graduation, McCann worked in parliament as an MP's researcher till 2011.[4][7]
In September 2015, McCann joined The Telegraph as senior political correspondent, after having previously worked for The Guardian, City A.M., and as The Sun's Whitehall correspondent.[8][9] Her stories included the publication of a leaked draft of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's manifesto, less than a month before the 2017 general election. She later described it as the highlight of her career in a 2022 interview.[8][10] The following year, she became the Chair of the Press Gallery, only the second female chair in its 200-year history.[4]
She left The Telegraph in July 2018 to join Sky News as a political correspondent.[11] After four years at Sky News, she became the political editor of TalkTV.[8] In July 2022, McCann co-hosted TalkTV's televised election debate between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, the two remaining candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party. After half an hour, when Truss was making a speech, McCann fainted;[1] as a result, the show came off air and was later cancelled.[12] She recovered shortly afterwards and apologised to both candidates on social media.[13]
She has co-hosted a Sunday morning political show with Adam Boulton on Times Radio since September 2022.[14] In July 2023, it was announced that McCann would become the station's political editor in September 2023.[15] In the same month, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Sunderland.[1] In January 2024, McCann was one of four guest panellists on BBC Question Time, hosted by Fiona Bruce.[16] In February 2024, McCann revealed on Twitter that she had her drink spiked in a bar "by a group of men so brazen they didn't care who saw". McCann shared her experience following an investigation by The Times into the extent of drink-spiking in Britain.[17]