National broadcasting first hailed as trailblazer for levelling up

The woman who fronted the first national live TV show to be broadcast in Leeds will tell a Humber Business Week audience of the need for more industries – and the government – to invest in the north.

Steph McGovern will use the platform presented by the Elevenses series of interviews to highlight the “desperate need” for levelling up and to increase the amount of public investment in northern towns and cities.

Middlesbrough-born Ms McGovern, who rose to fame as a business journalist with the BBC, was due to launch her Packed Lunch day time magazine show from Channel 4’s new studios in Leeds last April when the pandemic forced a rethink.

In her interview tomorrow [Tuesday 8 June] with Paul Sewell, founder of Humber Business Week and Chair of Sewell Group, she is expected to talk about the challenge of presenting the show from her kitchen for eight weeks.

Ms McGovern has also indicated that she plans to talk about the need for the education system to be more in tune with the world of work and to plan vocational training and business visits into the curriculum.

Mr Sewell said: “I’ll be asking about the issues around presenting a live TV show from your kitchen not long after you’ve had a baby and about Steph’s famous interview with Donald Trump.

“But above all else we’re looking for some strong business messages that people can take away with them so I’ll be asking what sort of things she learned from visiting hundreds of businesses during her time at the BBC”.

Filmed at Hull’s Aura Innovation Centre with a live audience of invited guests, the interview will be streamed at 11am and will not be repeated. To register, please visit the Tuesday events page.