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There aren\u2019t many British politicians of note who haven\u2019t been given the Robert Peston treatment at one time or another. Whether they\u2019ve clashed with him on his weekly politics show or on ITV News, or previously when he worked for the BBC or Radio 4\u2019s Today, they know this seasoned broadcaster isn\u2019t shy of holding their feet to the fire.<\/p>\n
The 63-year-old, now 40 years into his career as a journalist, says it\u2019s essential we examine the morality of our leaders \u2013 now more than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re embarrassed to talk about morality in public life,\u201d he tells the Daily Express<\/em>. \u201cAnd to think about whether our leaders have the correct ethical values. We never debate this at all and say it\u2019s just another politician lining their pocket or not telling us the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n While Peston stresses there are still plenty of upstanding politicians in Westminster, he fears the best are a dying breed.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the challenges is how to encourage more people with a profound sense of public service to go into politics and to stay the course,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also difficult to hold some of these politicians to account. All too often, Peston admits, his interviewees make no attempt to answer his questions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really frustrating. There\u2019s this stupid game of pretending to answer but not answering,\u201d he explains frankly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe number of people who say to me, \u2018How do you stay sane, talking to these people who don\u2019t answer questions?\u2019 On the whole, I don\u2019t get cross with them. I will point out to them politely that they\u2019re not answering the question and then I have another go.\u201d<\/p>\n The broadcaster believes that, by dodging legitimate questions, these politicians are undermining public trust in the Government.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re making a mistake because you can\u2019t take democracy for granted when all over the world democracy is in retreat. The more that politicians are seen to be evasive, the more at risk we are that the extremists will win.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE <\/strong> PM blames strikes as NHS waiting list hits 7.7 million high<\/strong><\/p>\n Peston is sitting in a restaurant in a smart hotel on London\u2019s Northumberland Avenue, close to the House of Commons from where he spends much of his time reporting.<\/p>\n Wearing a light blue suit, sipping on a Coke and munching olives, he\u2019s promoting his latest novel, The Crash<\/em>, a thriller about villainy at the heart of the British establishment during the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008.<\/p>\n The protagonist and hero, Gil Peck, is so strikingly similar to Peston himself, that you\u2019d be forgiven for assuming the book is partly autobiographical.<\/p>\n Just like Peston, Peck is an experienced financial journalist from a Jewish family who cycles around London from appointment to appointment on his folding bicycle, and who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.<\/p>\n In the novel, Peck breaks a news story about a failing British bank called NewGate; in real life, during the very same period, Peston broke a news story about the failing British bank Northern Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a teenager, I suffered from pretty debilitating OCD and, as a kid, I definitely had ADHD,\u201d he says of the shared character traits.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a kid, nobody talked about OCD or ADHD. You were just regarded as a slightly weird and eccentric kid. You just got on with it. Over the years I acquired strategies to manage these things.\u201d<\/p>\n He says he purposefully modelled his lead character on himself in order to give his novel authenticity.<\/p>\n \u201cOne way was to write about worlds that I\u2019ve lived and breathed,\u201d he explains. \u201cI could remember scenes I\u2019d been in in real life and change them enough so they are authentic but not fact.<\/p>\n Another similarity between Peston and Peck is that both men are vicious in their criticism of the bankers who caused the financial crisis in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cTestosterone-fuelled narcissistic sociopaths\u2026 who run our lives, ruin our lives,\u201d is how Peck describes them in the novel. And Peston doesn\u2019t pull any punches when describing their real-life equivalents.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t exactly been shy in criticising how these bankers took these ridiculously stupid risks, or the greed in some quarters, or the naivety in regulators in allowing this thing to happen under their noses,\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong> We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing how many quite bad people get to become very, very powerful. A very small number [of bankers] ended up in prison. A very small number lost money. But mostly they got away with it, and it\u2019s wrong they did.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the more incisive financial minds on TV, Peston, rather alarmingly, suspects it won\u2019t be long before we suffer another economic disaster, possibly as catastrophic as the last one.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a risk we will see a crash sooner than we would like, I\u2019m afraid,\u201d he warns. \u201cOne thing causing me enormous anxiety is that we have moved relatively fast from 20 years of low interest rates and low inflation to a new era of high interest rates and relatively high inflation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw a handful of American banks get into trouble a few months ago. We saw the disastrous Truss mini-budget. When you get this seismic change, we are at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Peston has been reporting on politics and finance for virtually all his working life. Born in London in 1960, he attended a comprehensive school in north London, before studying philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.<\/p>\n His father, Maurice Peston, was a Labour life peer, meaning Peston junior is entitled to call himself \u201cThe Honourable\u201d, although he chooses not to.<\/p>\n After a brief stint as a stockbroker, he wrote on finance for magazines and newspapers before becoming political editor at the Financial Times.<\/p>\n Other newspaper roles followed but it was after being appointed the BBC\u2019s business editor in 2005, with regular appearances on BBC News and the Today programme, that he finally became a household name.<\/p>\n During the global financial crisis, when bewildered Britons struggled to make sense of an economy spiralling out of control, he provided clear and calm analysis.<\/p>\n In 2016, he joined ITV News and launched his weekly political show Peston On Sunday, which later moved to its current slot on Wednesday evenings.<\/p>\n His wife Sian Busby, with whom he had a son, died of cancer in 2012. Nowadays he is in a relationship with author and former Sunday Telegraph<\/em> journalist Charlotte Edwardes.<\/p>\n Throughout the years he has conducted more than his fair share of penetrating interviews. But there have been some terrible ones, too. He remembers a particularly uninspiring meeting with then prime minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now I\u2019m a big fan of Theresa May, but this was literally the most annoying interview I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt was something to do with Scottish independence and she came out with the same answer for every question, almost word for word.\u201d<\/p>\n It was another prime minister, John Major, who provided Peston with one of his most heartwarming interviews, back in the 1990s, when the Tory boss was facing a leadership challenge.<\/p>\n A 10-year-old friend of the family had asked Peston to get him an autograph from the PM. \u201cHe worshipped John Major and I said: \u2018Would you mind scribbling him an autograph?\u2019\u201d Peston remembers.<\/p>\n \u201cHe took out some headed notepaper and wrote a letter to him. Then he wrote another one to my stepson. At the time I was really touched.<\/p>\n I thought, \u2018What a decent human being\u2019. It was the only time I did an interview and came away thinking better about the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Of all the political interviewers on TV, Peston has perhaps the most distinctive vocal delivery \u2013 slow, languid and drawn out at certain times, and rapid-fire at others.<\/p>\n One critic once described his intonation as \u201craggedy\u201d and \u201cquerulous\u201d. Another said he was, \u201cexcruciatingly hard to listen to\u201d.<\/p>\n Yet another complained of his \u201cstrangulated diction\u201d. Peston himself admits he has \u201ca slightly eccentric\u201d style, explaining how sometimes \u2013 perhaps because of his ADHD \u2013 his thoughts enter his mind faster than his ability to vocalise them.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it sounds like I may have a stutter,\u201d he adds. \u201cBut I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n He continues: \u201cWhen I started at the BBC, I think my vocal delivery was really weird. I don\u2019t know why. I was not a slick, polished lifetime broadcaster and a lot of viewers and listeners didn\u2019t like it; they were used to something different.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately, I then got some decent scoops and did some proper journalism and people gave me the benefit of the doubt that what I was saying was worth hearing.<\/p>\n They got used to my slightly weirder delivery and gave me time to learn how to do the job better, I suppose. These days, I very rarely get complaints about how I talk.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, Peston has now become part of British TV furniture. Despite his slightly idiosyncratic delivery, his is a voice of reassurance in times of economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n Personally, he is very much looking forward to the next UK general election \u2013 almost certain to take place some time next year.<\/p>\n With a glint in his eye, he points out how it could well coincide with the US presidential elections. \u201cIt\u2019s not impossible,\u201d he says. \u201cFor news organisations it\u2019s going to be a flipping nightmare because they\u2019re both so important.\u201d<\/p>\n Needless to say, if Donald Trump features in the election across the pond, British media will focus almost as much time and effort on US politics as they will on British politics.<\/p>\n \u201cI am so looking forward to it,\u201d Peston adds excitedly. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit like if you\u2019re a football commentator and the World Cup is on. This is our World Cup, so of course it\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n With all his experience, presumably he can offer a fairly accurate prediction, at least of the UK result? \u201cAll I would say is, so much has gone wrong with the Tory party, you would assume Labour would form the next government.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this has been the most extraordinarily fast-changing period of my lifetime; anybody\u2019s lifetime. You\u2019re an idiot if you think that something can\u2019t come out of left field which will immediately change our perceptions all over again.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/4962068.jpg?r=1694812307804\")
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