Ayesha Hazarika is a broadcaster and columnist who covers politics, culture and social affairs. She presents her own show on Times Radio and is a regular commentator elsewhere, including the BBC, Sky News and Good Morning Britain. She is also a familiar face on satirical panel shows such as Have I Got News For You and The News Quiz.

Ayesha has contributed columns to the Evening Standard, the Scotsman and the i paper, and was formerly editor of the Standard's Londoner Diary. She is co-author of Punch and Judy Politics: An Insider’s Guide to Prime Minister’s Questions, one of the top 10 best-selling political books of 2018.

Between 2007 and 2015 she was a senior special adviser to Labour, working with Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband on speeches, parliamentary debates, media and policy, including helping to draft the landmark Equality Act 2010. She previously worked in the civil service and in business as a senior adviser to EMI’s then global chairman.

Alongside her political and media work, Ayesha has performed award-winning stand-up comedy and is a sought-after public speaker. She was awarded an MBE for services to politics in 2016, an honorary doctorate in law from Hull University in 2019, and entered the House of Lords in July 2024 as Baroness Hazarika of Coatbridge.

Born and raised in Lanarkshire, she studied law at Hull University before completing a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Westminster University.