Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel will leave the BBC and join Global radio in exclusive deal 

BBC veterans Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel are leaving the corporation to join Global, the owners of LBC, it was revealed today. 

The veteran broadcasters have been at the BBC for more than a total of 50 years – with Mr Sopel previously the favourite to replace Laura Kuenssberg as Political Editor.

Ms Maitlis, the host of Newsnight, has announced her departure days after her interview with Prince Andrew contributed to him settling with Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

They will front a major new podcast for Global Player, as well as hosting a show together on LBC and providing commentary and analysis for lbc.co.uk.

Maitlis and Sopel join Global from the BBC, where Maitlis hosted Newsnight and Sopel was the corporation’s North America Editor. The pair also hosted the BBC’s critically-acclaimed Americast podcast, which explored the state of US politics.

The move follows Global’s signing of Andrew Marr, whose LBC show is set to be announced soon.

As part of the deal, Dino Sofos, the founder of audio production company Persephonica, also joins Global as the podcast’s executive producer. Sofos is the former head of BBC News Podcasts and created Brexitcast, Newscast and Americast formats.