Andrew Neil

At 74 years old, Andrew Neil has this physical status:

Andrew Ferguson (born 21 May 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster.

On BBC Two, he hosts Politics Live and The Andrew Neil Show as of 2019. Neil was appointed editor of The Sunday Times by Rupert Murdoch and served in this capacity from 1983 to 1994.

Since this, he became a contributor to the Daily Mail.

He was both chief executive and editor-in-chief of the Press Holdings company.

He became the founding chairman of Sky TV in 1988, as well as a member of Murdoch's News Corporation.

He has been chairman of Press Holdings Media Group, whose titles include The Spectator and the ITP Media Group, since July 2008.

For decades, he has been with the BBC, directing various programs.

Early life

Neil was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, on May 21, 1949, to Mary and James Neil. During World War II, his mother worked in cotton mills and his father fought in the wartime Cairo fire brigade. He worked as an electrician and was a major in the Territorial Army in Renfrewshire. He grew up in Glenburn and attended the local Lancraigs Primary School. Neil passed the qualifying examination and gained admission to the selective Paisley Grammar School at 11 years old.

Neil studied at the University of Glasgow, edited the student newspaper, the Glasgow University Guardian, and dabbled in student television after school. He was a member of the Dialectic Society and the Conservative Club and was active in inter-varsity debates at Glasgow University University. He was chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students in 1971. He received his MA in political economy and political science in 1971. Vince Cable had trained him and had a focus on American history.

Personal life

Neil married Susan Nilsson on August 8, 2015, later dubbed the "Bachelor of Fleet Street" by the former. For many years, he had been dated the Swedish civil and structural engineer. Waterman Group PLC, Nilsson's current director of engineering and environmental consulting firm Waterman Group PLC. He had 14 godchildren by 2006, but he has no children of his own. Neil is a French national and has homes in London and New York.

Neil has threatened to sue Boris Johnson, the American businesswoman and former girlfriend of Boris Johnson, as well as other Twitter users who retweeted or endorsed her now-deleted tweet. Neil denies ever meeting Epstein and claims he was put in his infamous "black book" by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's procurer.

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Press career

Neil served as a sports reporter for a local newspaper, the Paisley Daily Express, for a brief period before joining the Conservative Party. He began as a reporter in 1973 and was later promoted to editor of The Economist's section on Britain.

From 1983 to 1994, Neil was editor of The Sunday Times. His appointment was controversial: Rupert Murdoch reportedly voted him ahead of more experienced colleagues, such as Hugo Young and Brian MacArthur.

Before he was appointed editor, Neil told Murdoch that The Sunday Times was emotionally stranded in a 1960s time warp and that it should "shake off its collectivist mindset" to become the champion of a market-led revolution that would shake the British Establishment's bones and change the economy and society. Although Neil later said that he shared some of Murdoch's right-wing views, Rupert was still on the right of me politically." He was a monetarist. I wasn't prepared for it. Also, I did not reveal my conservative social outlook. "In his first editorial, Neil advised Margaret Thatcher's government to "move to the right on industrial policy (trust-bust, deregulate, privatize, privatize, etc., wherever it provides more competition and growth) and center-left in economic policy (a few billion dollars in capital spending would have no effect on interest rates or inflation, but might give a lift to a shaky economic recovery)" in her first editorial (on October 9, 1983).

After the Soviet Union introduced SS-20s in Eastern Europe, the Sunday Times favoured the stationing of American cruise missiles in bases in Britain, and it condemned the revived Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Despite Hugo Young's resistance, Neil wrote editorials in favor of the United States' invasion of Grenada because it would restore democracy there. Neil told Young that he wanted The Sunday Times' editorial position to be "neo-Keynesian in economic policy, radical right in industrial policy, liberal on social policy, and European and Atlanticist on foreign policy. The Sunday Times had announced the date of the launch of cruise missiles in Neil's first year as the paper's editor, as well as a piece on Robert Mugabe's atrocities in Matabelland. Sex and Destiny, as well as a report on the "Patels of Britain," a commemoration of the Asian community's success.

In 1986, Neil discusses the newspaper's disclosure of the specifics of Israel's nuclear program, quoting photographs and testimony from former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu as his best news as an editor. The newspaper lost a libel case after it was discovered that it had involving Carmen Proetta, a witness who was interviewed after her appearance in the Death on the Rock documentary about the Gibraltar shootings. Rosie Waterhouse, one of the Sunday Times journalists who was involved, resigned not long after.

The Sunday Times published a front-page article (titled "Uncaring" Thatcher') claiming that Margaret Thatcher's proposals were "uncaring, confrontational, and socioeconomically divisive" on July 20th. Michael Shea, the Queen's press secretary, was the primary source of intelligence. When Buckingham Palace released a statement rebutting the tale, Neil became so angry at what he considered to be the Palace's double-dealing that he refused to print the statement in later versions of The Sunday Times.

The Labour-controlled Strathclyde Regional Authority wanted to close down Neil's old school, Paisley Grammar School, in 1987. After finding the secretary of state for Scotland, Malcolm Rifkind, who is indifferent to the school's future, Neil told Margaret Thatcher's policy advisor, Brian Griffiths, to try and save the school. When Griffiths told Thatcher of Strathclyde's decision to close it, she issued a new law that gave the Scottish secretary the right to save schools where 80% of the parents were against the local authority's closure policy, saving Paisley Grammar.

According to Peregrine Worsthorne, Neil met former Miss India, Pamella Bordes, in a nightclub, an inappropriate spot for someone with Neil's job. Bordes was described as a call girl by the News of the World. In an editorial column "Playboys as Editors" for The Sunday Telegraph in March 1989, Worsthorne argued that Neil was not fit to edit a serious Sunday newspaper. Worsthorne convicted Neil of knowing that Bordes was a prostitute. He seemed not to be aware of Bordes, which the Telegraph had accepted by the time the libel case was heard in the High Court of Justice in January 1990, but the newspaper maintained that the investigation was fair. Neil received both the case and £1,000 in damages plus charges.

Neil wrote in a July 1988 essay ("Morals for the majority") that in Britain there were pockets of social decay and unsocial activity: "A social rot" has occurred "deeper than the industrial decline of the 1960s and 1970s." Neil Murray, who was impressed by Charles Murray's analysis of the American welfare state, Losing Ground, welcomed Murray to Britain in 1989 to study Britain's emerging underclass. Murray's book, which concluded that the British underclass was largely dedicated to Murray's study, which found that the British underclass was made up of people living on welfare, the black economy, and crime, with illegitimacy being the single most reliable predictor. According to the accompanying article, Britain was embroiled in a "social disaster of Dickensian proportions," with an underclass "characterized by drugs, casual assault, juvenile violence, undocumented children, homelessness, and contempt for traditional values."

The Sunday Times opposed the poll tax under Neil's editorship. Neil's book "Reality" was revealing when he found that his cleaner would be paying more poll taxes than himself at a time when his income tax was only reduced to 60% from 60%. The Sunday Times was the only Murdoch-owned newspaper to endorse Michael Heseltine against Thatcher during the 1990 Conservative Party leadership race. Neil chastised Thatcher for high inflation, "misplaced chauvinism" over Europe, and the poll tax, concluding that she had become a "electoral responsibility" and would therefore be replaced by Heseltine.

Neil suggested that males in the succession law be abolished as well as the exclusion of Catholics from the throne in an editorial published in January 1988 ("Modernize the monarchy"; The Sunday Times' subpoena called on the Queen to pay income tax and advocated for a scaled-down monarchy that would not be class-based, but that would be "an institution with close links to all classes." It meant throwing out the old-school courtiers and replacing them with a tribunal that was much more representative of the United Kingdom's multi-racial meritocracy. In an editorial published in February 1991, Neil chastised some minor members of the Royal Family for their behaviour while the country was at war in the Gulf. Neil obtained the serialization rights for Andrew Morton's book Diana: Her True Story in 1992, which revealed the breakdown of Princess Diana's marriage, as well as her bulimia and suicide attempts.

Hugh Trevor-Roper, a Holocaust denier, was criticised by anti-Nazi groups and scholars in 1992 for using David Irving, a Holocaust denier, to translate Joseph Goebbels' diaries.

According to Neil, he was fired as Sunday Times editor in 1994 because Murdoch had been jealous of his fame. Neil Clarke, the former Conservative cabinet minister of Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad, was dismissed after Keith's piece about graft in the Malaysian government of Mahathir Mohamad contradicted Murdoch's desire to buy a television franchise in the region many years ago. On a ministerial visit, Malaysia's prime minister told Clarke that he had achieved Neil's dismissal after a phone call with Murdoch. At the time, the feud between Neil and Mohamad was not widely known. Richard Needham, the British minister of state for trade, chastised Neil and the journal for potentially losing thousands of jobs.

Neil's resignation as a Sunday Times editor was officially announced in 1994 as being merely interim, as he was to present and edit a Fox's current affairs program in New York. "The Sunday Times has been at the center of every major scandal in Britain during my tenure," he said at the time. "These are the kind of journalistic values I want to imitate at Fox." Neil's latest television show did not make it to air. A pilot who was built in September had a mixed internal reaction, and Murdoch scrapped the entire project in late October. Neil did not return to work as the Sunday Times editor.

Neil became a contributor to the Daily Mail. He became the editor-in-chief of the Barclay brothers' Press Holdings company in 1996, and The Business (later, just The Business) and The European. In December 2005, Press Holdings acquired The Scotsman, effectively ending Neil's newspaper association. Neil hasn't had a blast with the newspaper's circulations (indeed The European Union folded shortly after he took over). In February 2008, the company was shut down. In July 2008, he exchanged his position as chairman for chief executive of Press Holdings. He is the chairman of Press Holdings' The Spectator is a newspaper that publishes articles about him.

Neil has been the chair of the Dubai-based publishing company ITP Media Group since 2006.

Neil steered a consortium that purchased talent agency Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (PFD) from CSS Stellar plc for £4 million in June 2008, making him chairman of the new company in addition to his other duties. From 1999 to 2002, Neil served as Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews.

Broadcasting career

Neil has been involved in television production as well as his newspaper appearances. He contributed to American television networks while at The Economist.

Is This Your Life? For Channel 4, he has a regular interview series. BAFTA has been shortlisted for the "Best Talk Show" category, which was largely supported by Open Media. Neil interviewed a number of celebrities, from Albert Reynolds and Morris Cerullo to Jimmy Savile and Max Clifford. In two films, Dirty Weekend (1993) and Parting Shots (1999), both directed by Michael Winner, he appeared as a television newsreader.

He became the founding chairman of Sky TV in 1988, when Murdoch's News Corporation was also involved. Neil was instrumental in the company's inception, assisting with the conversion of a downmarket single-channel satellite network into a four-channel network in less than a year. On Friday, Neil and Murdoch were both by side at Sky's new headquarters in Isleworth, where they were seated side by side at the service's unveiling. Sky was not a hit on time; the confusion caused by British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB)'s rivalry (BSB) and the initial shortage of satellite dishes were early issues.

The failure of BSB in November 1990 resulted in a merger, but on Sky One and BSB's satellites, only a few programs purchased by BSB were broadcast. British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) was the new company. Despite its success, Sky may have earned it more money; despite its fame, there were very few major advertisers to start with, and it was beginning to suffer from humiliating breakdowns. The issues were not solved by Acquiring BSB's improved advertising staff and equipment. BSkyB did not make a buck for a decade, but by July 2010, it was one of Europe's most profitable television companies.

He appeared on BBC Radio and Television at The Sunday Times. As editor, he spoke out about the various scandals triggered by the paper. Neil fronted political shows for the BBC in the 1990s, most notably Despatch Box on BBC Two.

Following the redesign of the BBC's political service in early 2003, Neil hosted the live political programmes on BBC One and Daily Politics on BBC Two. The former worked with Politics Live, which Neil introduced before the company was decommissioned.

Straight Talk with Andrew Neil, a weekly one-on-one political interview show on the BBC News channel, ran from 2007 to 2010. Following host Jeremy Paxman's departure in 2014, he also appeared on Sunday Politics on BBC One between 2012 and 2017, and occasionally guest on Newsnight on BBC Two.

Both 2010 and 2015. Neil was a central figure in the BBC general election night coverage in both 2010 and 2015. In the studio for the 2015 election, Neil interviewed many celebrities on the River Thames for the 2010 election and political figures. He also provided reports on foreign affairs, and with Katty Kay of the BBC, he anchored the BBC's overnight coverage of the 2016 US presidential election. In the run-up to the 2017 general election, he interviewed five of the political parties on BBC One in The Andrew Neil Interviews.

In the financial year 2016-2017, Neil earned £200,000 to £249,999 as a BBC presenter.

On Politics Live on BBC Two in May 2019, Neil interviewed Ben Shapiro, an American conservative commentator. Shapiro was promoting his latest book, The Right Side of History, which explores Judeo-Christian values and claims that in the United States, they have declined. Before Shapiro stopped the question, Shapiro dismissed the allegations, accusing Neil of having a left-leaning bias, and said Neil was attempting to make a "quick buck" out of the fact that I'm well-known and no one has ever heard of you. Shapiro later apologised for the incident.

In The Andrew Neil Interviews, Neil Hunt and Boris Johnson, the 2019 Conservative Party leadership race, interviewed candidates. "A masterclass of political interviewing" was praised by BBC News director Fran Unsworth.

Neil will host The Andrew Neil Show, the BBC's prime-time political program that will run through autumn 2019 on BBC Two. "In-depth analysis and forensic questioning of key political figures" were included on the program. In March 2020, it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was then scrapped as the BBC went through with budget cuts.

Neil Kelly on BBC One's Special Edition: Politics in Crisis, addressing the Supreme Court's decision that had deemed Boris Johnson's prorogation of parliament unlawful. Neil interviewed all the leaders of the key political parties in the run-up to the 2019 general election, excluding Johnson, who gave a monologue in The Andrew Neil Interviews issuing him a challenge to participate.

Neil was on interview with the BBC on July 15, 2020, and he confirmed it on the BBC on July 15, 2020. Sir David Clementi's potential replacement as chairman of the BBC was discussed in the media for the next month; he later said he had no interest in the position. Tim Davie, the BBC's director general, on his second day in the role, held talks with Neil "in the hopes of returning him to the BBC," and it was revealed that he was also in negotiations with executives from competitors.

Neil's last appearance for the BBC came when he announced coverage of the 2020 US presidential election alongside Katty Kay.

Neil announced his departure from the BBC to become chairman of GB News on September 25, 2020, a news channel that first launched on June 13, 2021. Andrew Neil, a prime time evening show on the channel, was more than chairman. After hosting eight episodes of his program, two weeks after the channel's launch, he declared that he would be taking a break. He spent months in his hiatus as a result of legal trouble with GB News over ending his employment. However, Neil and the channel also announced that he was on vacation, and that he would return to the channel in early September. Multiple news outlets announced that his return had been postponed, with others predicting that this postponement might become indefinite. He was also confirmed that he was "highly unlikely" to return to the channel.

Neil resigned as chairman and lead presenter from GB News on September 13 and announced that he would take on a new role as a guest contributor. Later this month, he said he had left his positions at GB News over the channel's direction, and that he had become a "minority of one" in senior leadership. It was reported that these remarks had angered GB News bosses, and that Neil would not be seen on GB News again. Neil said he did not return to GB News on September 22nd.

Comparing the channel to Fox News, Neil later branded his decision to lead the channel the channel as the "biggest mistake" of his career.

Neil was in talks with Channel 4 in January 2022 about a weekly politics show that would be unveiled later this year. Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road?, a documentary by Channel 4 on January 30, which explored Boris Johnson's premiership after repeated allegations of rivalries erupted in Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown. Channel 4's Bob Burnett announced on February 21 that he would host a show in May that would also be supplemented by a weekly podcast. The Andrew Neil Show opened with an interview with cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, and journalists Pippa Crerar and Madeline Grant followed him, and Neil was also joined by journalists Pippa Crerar and Madeline Grant.

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