About Andrew Neil
Andrew Ferguson Neil (born 21 May 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster. He has presented various political programmes on the BBC and on Channel 4. Born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Neil attended Paisley Grammar School, before studying at the University of Glasgow. He entered journalism in 1973 as a correspondent for The Economist. Neil was appointed editor of The Sunday Times by Rupert Murdoch in 1983, and held this position until 1994. After that, he became a contributor to the Daily Mail. He was chief executive and editor-in-chief of Press Holdings Media Group. In 1988, he became founding chairman of Sky TV, also part of Murdoch's News Corporation. He worked for the BBC for 25 years until 2020, fronting various programmes, including Sunday Politics and This Week on BBC One and Daily Politics, Politics Live and The Andrew Neil Show on BBC Two. From 2008 until 2024 he was the chairman of Press Holdings, whose titles include The Spectator, and ITP Media Group. Following his departure from the BBC, he became founding chairman of GB News and a presenter on the channel, but resigned in September 2021. He joined Channel 4, as presenter of The Andrew Neil Show, between 2022 and 2023, the show shared the same name as his former BBC Two programme. In June 2024 he began hosting a daily broadcast for Times Radio providing political analysis, commentary, interviews and debates. Neil won both the case and £1,000 in damages plus costs. In his memoirs, Neil said that his opposition to the poll tax crystallised when he discovered that his cleaner would be paying more poll tax than himself at a time when his income tax had just been reduced to 40% from 60%.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.