Emma Barnett

Barnett was born on 5 February 1985 in Manchester to Ian, a commercial property surveyor, and Michele Barnett. She has no siblings.[3] During Barnett's teenage years, her parents ran brothels in the Greater Manchester area, involving human trafficking.[4][5] Her Jewish grandmother fled Wiener Neustadt,[6] Austria, for England to escape the Nazis.[7]

Barnett attended Manchester High School for Girls, an independent school. In 2006, Barnett graduated with a degree in History and Politics from University of Nottingham.[8][9] She took a postgraduate course in journalism at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies.[10]

Following the postgraduate course at Cardiff, Barnett began her career in journalism at Media Week in 2007 and joined The Daily Telegraph in 2009, later becoming the paper's first digital media editor,[11] and then, from 2012, the women's editor. Barnett launched The Telegraph's digital section, "Wonder Women" in October 2012 with contributors such as Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News.[12][13][14] She also became chair of the UJIA Jewish media network[15] and of the UJIA Skirt Network, a networking group for Jewish women.[16]

A radio presenter for LBC for almost three years until early 2014, Barnett joined BBC Radio 5 Live that summer.[17] From November 2014, she presented the station's Hit List programme, a countdown of the 40 highest profile online news stories of the week.[18] After leaving The Telegraph, Barnett started presenting the morning slot on BBC Radio 5 Live in September 2016, being the first woman to have a solo daily slot since the departure of Shelagh Fogarty and Victoria Derbyshire two years earlier in a new-look schedule.[14]

In April 2014, Barnett was a judge for Woman's Hour (BBC Radio 4) power list,[19] a programme on which she has been an occasional presenter, the youngest in the programme's history.[20][21] A decade before Barnett began her role on Woman's Hour, at 17, she did work experience with its presenter, Jenni Murray.[20] Additionally, she has made documentaries for Radio 4.[10]

In August 2016, Barnett's 'Tough Love' agony column began in The Sunday Times Magazine. To encourage her readers to write in about difficult issues, she referred to "the most painful chapter of my life" when her father was "imprisoned for living off immoral earnings".[22] Ian Barnett was jailed for three years and eight months in 2008 after admitting to keeping a string of brothels, controlling prostitution and conspiracy to control brothels. The police presented evidence that Emma Barnett was aware of the criminal activity.[23] Her mother was convicted of money laundering in relation to earnings from the brothels and given a suspended term.[24]

In March 2018, Barnett began a series of podcasts for Historic England entitled Irreplaceable: A History of England in 100 Places. The podcast, presented by Barnett and Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb, was nominated for the British Podcast Awards in the 'Best Branded Content' category in April 2018.

In March 2019 she became one of the regular presenters on BBC Two's Newsnight.[25] In 2019 her book Period. It's About Bloody Time was released, which covered her experience of endometriosis.[26]

In September 2020[27] Barnett was announced as the new main presenter of Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. She started presenting the programme on Monday to Thursday in January 2021.[28]

On 6 January 2021, it was widely reported that, in her third Woman's Hour programme, Barnett was involved in an incident when she was overheard by guests discussing with her producers after inadvertently leaving her microphone on, alleged anti-Semitic comments made by Kelechi Okafor, who was booked to talk about the legacy of the #MeToo movement, defending similar comments made by Reggie Yates in 2017 about record company managers. Upon realising Okafor had heard the exchange, Okafor was offered the opportunity to comment on air but declined to be interviewed. Sharing the incident on Twitter moments later, Okafor said that "I'm coming off Woman’s Hour because what I’ve just had to witness is absolutely degrading and vile". Another guest booked to appear, Sarah Green, said Women's Hour should apologise to Okafor. Barnett defended herself, saying she would have been happy to have Okafor on the show, “but equally it is my duty to ask people what qualifies them as a leading voice in a space. And about any previous issues which may influence their views”.[29]

Barnett was named in two consecutive annual lists of the Radio Academy’s 30 under 30 list.[18] She also made the 20 under 30 Hot List feature in Red magazine in 2011.[30] While at The Telegraph, Barnett was named Digital Journalist of the Year by the Association of Online Publishers and Digital Writer of the Year at the 2011 Online Media Awards.[11] She was named best newcomer at the Arqiva commercial radio awards in 2012.[17]

She was named and Broadcaster of the Year in 2017 by the Political Studies Association[31] and Radio Broadcaster of the Year in 2018 by the Broadcasting Press Guild.[32]

Barnett met her husband at university and married in 2012.[33] In 2018, she had a son.[34][35] She is from an Orthodox Jewish background, though not herself especially observant,[36] and with an ambivalence about both Orthodox and Reform Judaism.[37] She carries out charity work for Norwood, one of the largest welfare organisations within the British Jewish community.[15]

Barnett is a member of the Women's Equality Party.[38]

• "Contributor page: Emma Barnett", The Telegraph website
• Woman's Hour (BBC Radio 4)