Emma Barnett revealed as new host of Woman’s Hour after Jane Garvey announced she was leaving

Outspoken period campaigner Emma Barnett has been announced as the new host of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour after Jane Garvey devastated listeners by revealing she was leaving the programme at the end of year.

Emma, 35, from Manchester, is set to take on the role of main host of the show from January 2021 when Jane, 56, will leave to host her own interview series on BBC Radio 4.  

Emma, who is currently the host of a BBC Radio 5 Live show, is the daughter of Ian, 69, and Michelle, 68, who made a fortune from running a string of brothels. 

In a statement about the news, the presenter said: ‘I can’t wait to get to know the many listeners of Woman’s Hour a lot, lot better. 

‘What adventures we are going to have together – all starting in the year that this BBC institution, the radio mothership, turns 75.’

She continued: ‘I have a long love of Woman’s Hour and live radio and know that this is a very special and rare opportunity.’ 

The new presenter is known for her headline-making interviews and broadcasting firsts and recently hosted the Duchess of Cornwall’s first guest edit, live from Clarence House. 

Meanwhile she also hosted the BBC’s first joint live radio and TV phone-in with a Prime Minister, Theresa May.

She has been a regular presenter on the programme since 2013 and presented alongside Jane and Jenni Murray during the 2017 and 2019 Generation Elections.    

From January, she is set to present Woman’s Hour from Monday to Thursday each week, with a second presenter hosting the Friday and Saturday programmes.

The broadcaster had an eventful childhood after it emerged her father Ian had made a fortune from running a string of brothels.

He and his wife Michelle were said to have earned £6.2million from the chain of sex parlours. 

Such was their success that along with her £20,000 X-type Jaguar and his Rolls-Royce with its £40,000 personalised numberplate, they had a £500,000 house in an exclusive neighbourhood.

In 2010, a trial judge branded him an ‘evil, immoral man’, saying he had conducted his ‘vile trade’ on a ‘breathtaking scale’. 

Writing in 2016, Emma  said she had been stunned by her fathers crimes, saying: ‘I knew my dad Ian was in trouble, but he had always made out it would never come to anything.’

She said she had had a ‘very traditional upbringing’ and she was 14-years-old when her father had become involved in the running of massage parlours in Manchester.

The family home was raided when she was in her second year of university,  before her father 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.

Meanwhile her mother was convicted of money laundering in relation to earnings from the brothels and given a suspended term.

Emma was recently embroiled in controversy when critics questioned Newsnight’s lack of ethnic minority presenters and reporters.

While the Corporation has pledged to improve diversity and better reflect its audiences, Newsnight does not have a single non-white journalist who appears in front of the camera. 

Meanwhile Emma has regularly hit the headlines over the years with her outspoken comments about periods. 

Last year she said  that if men had periods ‘menstrual leave would be baked into HR policies’ and  joked they would walk around with ‘tampons behind their ears’ if they menstruated and brag they’re a ‘three pad kind of guy’. 

She was also accused of being a ‘Zionist’ by  apparent Jeremy Corbyn supporters on Twitter after she asked him about the cost of providing free pre-school childcare on Radio 4.

At the time, former Channel 4 economics editor Paul Mason also criticised her saying: ‘You repeatedly editorialised in a way no trained BBC journalist would, dropping in your own views/unsubstantiated claim.’ 

However controller of Radio 4, Mohit Bakaya, said she was ‘delighted’ Emma was joining the team, saying: ‘She started her BBC broadcasting career on Radio 4 and has continued to be closely involved with the network in general, and Woman’s Hour in particular, ever since. 

‘She brings a terrific combination of intellectual inquiry, robust journalism and curiosity about the human condition; I can’t think of anyone better to carry on the important job of identifying and exploring the issues that matter most to women.’    

It comes after Radio 4 listeners were left ‘devastated’ after Jane announced she is quitting Woman’s Hour weeks after Dame Jenni Murray said she was leaving the show.  

She presented Woman’s Hour for 13 years and has interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars.

After the announcement she was met with an outpouring of sadness from listeners, who asked if her departure was related to the show trying to capture a younger audience.

She replied to a fan on Twitter: ‘I am leaving partly because it would be much much easier to stay. 

‘Woman’s Hour will always have an ally in me. But it’s good to refresh.’ 

Fans of the show responded on social media expressing their disappointment at the popular presenter was leaving the show. 

Mary Hoffman said: ‘Nooo! I’m devastated. You are my favourite radio 4 presenter and of course I shall listen to your new programme but I might have to give up Woman’s Hour after a 45 year habit. Good luck though.’ 

Pen Thompson wrote: ‘Oh no ! Losing Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey from Women’s Hour – this is an end of an era (not in a good way) and I’m very sad.’ 

Another added: ‘Will miss Jane Garvey on Woman’s Hour. Best presenter ever and I listened at my mothers knee in the fifties so I’ve heard them all. 

‘Look forward to what you do next Jane.’ 

Earlier the broadcaster said in a statement: ‘It’s been a real privilege to play a small part in the history of this very special radio programme.

‘On one unforgettable day, I interviewed David Cameron in the morning, and Mary J Blige in the afternoon. There’s no other job like it.

‘But famous people are not the reason people engage with Woman’s Hour. It’s because the programme still talks about the subjects and challenges no-one else goes near.

‘I’m very proud of our relationship with the audience and the trust they place in us.’ 

Dame Jenni announced at the end of July that she was leaving the Radio 4 show after more than three decades. Her last programme will be on October 1.

The 70-year-old is the longest-serving presenter in the show’s 74-year history.  

Garvey is believed to have decided to leave before Dame Jenni announced her departure.

The broadcaster, the first voice on Radio 5 Live when it was launched in 1994, revealed the news to her listeners on Friday morning, saying: ‘Is there anything worse than a personal statement from a radio presenter? No, not really, but I’m afraid you are about to hear one.

‘I have loved presenting Woman’s Hour, it has been a tremendous privilege, but I have decided to leave the programme at the end of the year.

‘I’m not leaving Radio 4. I’m going to be doing a new interview programme, starting in April of next year and, if you are a listener to the Fortunately podcast with me and Fi Glover, somehow or other that is being allowed to stagger on to the Radio 4 late-night schedule, so that will be coming to Radio 4 in the new year as well.’

She added: ‘No time to get maudlin … we can do that in late December.’

Garvey, who irked some listeners earlier this year and was accused of being ‘snobby’ when she called Arctic Rolls a ‘low-level pudding’, quipped on Twitter that ‘No, it wasn’t the bloody Arctic Roll thing that did for me in the end.

‘Thanks for all the comments. Especially the one that said I was way too opinionated, and a man should take over BBC Woman’s Hour immediately.’