Sky’s political editor on the pressures of being a woman in her job, cutting her own fringe, and that extraordinary Dominic Cummings briefing
Beth Rigby, 44, joined Sky News in 2016 and became its political editor last year. She grew up in Essex and after Cambridge University she joined the Financial Times as a graduate trainee – in her 12 years at the newspaper she worked as hedge fund correspondent, consumer industries editor and political editor. She lives in north
London with her husband, Angelo, and their two children.
What kind of lockdown are you having?The silver lining is that I’ve spent more time with my children. But professionally, it’s intense. Everything we do really matters and is really scrutinised. Part of the joy of my
Job is the stuff that happens around the edges: bumping into people; picking up nuggets; talking to half a dozen backbenchers so you can get an idea of what they think about the government’s approach. You can tell how someone feels about a question by their body language – it might be just a flicker across a face – and without physical proximity to people, you don’t pick up on emotions so easily. So that richness and texture is gone – and also the fun. I love talking to people. I’m very gregarious.