Baroness Hazarika MBE

Twitter link

Testimonials

"Please also pass on a huge thank you on to Ayesha. She was excellent – a great balance of informative, engaging and relevant for the audience. Her session really helped keep the audience in the room until the end of the event (it was the best attended afternoon session we’ve ever had at the SMMT Summit) and was extremely well received by our members and by my SMMT colleagues" SMMT, 2025

 

"Thank you so much. It's fair to say that you exceeded my wildest expectations - you were simply wonderful. Feedback from the delegates has also been terrific." - Steven Freudmann ITT

 

"Thank you very much for joining us yesterday and for how brilliantly you played you role as the panel moderator. Your clear, insightful approach – complete with humour and ability to keep us speakers on our toes! – kept the discussion lively and sparked meaningful exchanges with the audience. It was a great way to round off the Decisive Decade campaign and I’m very grateful to you for joining us." - Christian, CEO of PA Consulting

"Thanks to the superb moderation by Baroness Hazarika MBE. She has a rare gift of being able to scale intimacy, splice humour into intellectual debate and keep momentum within a conversation. We were both really impressed, she made the event a TEN" - Will Page, Pivotal Economics and Ralph Simon, Mobilium

"Ayesha gave us some real and no-punches-pulled insight into Labour and politics more widely, which is something you don’t hear that often at a corporate gig. She managed to make everyone laugh while maintaining a serious presentation. She is also a very uplifting presence on stage, if that makes sense. I’m a big fan and expected her to be good – but she was superb. Feedback from the audience has been uniformly excellent." - Deloitte

"I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Ayesha as a speaker. She was warm and engaging, funny and well-informed, and pitched the tone just right for our audience. Her blend of humour, political anecdotes, and knowledgeable insight and even forecasting made for a very interesting evening. She took questions and answered each one thoughtfully and thoroughly. She was also extremely pleasant to work with and interacted beautifully with guests who approached her after her speech looking for a one-to-one chat." - Scottish Council for Development and Industry

“Relaxed, Mischievous and with a mind like a steel trap…go and see what she has to say.” - Scotsman ★★★★

“Hazarika’s return to stand up is also public service, never less than entertaining” - The Guardian

“She went down great with the audience, really enjoyed the speech and to top it all, she’s delightful company! So very pleased” - Energy UK

blue line

Broadcaster, comedian and writer Baroness Hazarika MBE is known for her insightful and witty opinions, and her informed observations on current affairs and politics.

Host of Times Radio every Friday (1-4pm), and Saturday and Sunday Drive (4-7pm), where she dissects the latest news and geopolitical events with a plethora of interesting and engaging guests, and presents its weekly Culture Hour. Ayesha also sits in the political hotseat on Good Morning Britain (ITV), on a biweekly basis throughout the year. She is a regular contributor on Question Time (BBC Two), The Jeremy Vine Show (C5), Lorraine (ITV), and is often seen exercising her funny bones on The News Quiz (Radio 4) and Have I Got News For You (BBC One).

In 2024, Ayesha Hazarika MBE, Political Commentator, Journalist and Broadcaster was granted a prestigious lifetime Peerage and elevated to the House of Lords. Nominated by Labour and conferred by His Majesty.

In the world of podcasting, Ayesha presented The Diplomat’s official companion podcast for Netflix, interviewing stars of the show Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell and Allison Janney. Prior to the last election, Ayesha presented the hit podcast The Power Test, where she delved into questions about the potential future government. She also co-hosted Take on Tomorrow, the hugely successful podcast series produced by PwC, aiming to understand the role businesses can play in solving some of the biggest issues facing society today.

Ayesha is in high demand as a speaker and host due to her unique ability to combine laser-sharp political insight gleaned from the inside track at Westminster with her comedic perspective. She considers how politics works, how messages are communicated and how government policy is formed and influenced. She also addresses the future of culture, media and the creative industries in a climate of cuts and unequal opportunities. As well as a political overview and analysis, Ayesha looks at the role of women in politics and the challenges they often face in their careers interspersed with laugh-out-loud funnies.

Ayesha has made a name for herself in the world of print by contributing to The Scotsman, The Independent, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, New Statesman, The iPaper and Grazia. She also co-authored Punch & Judy Politics, an in-depth, behind-the-scenes display of what happens during the preparation and run-up to the weekly Prime Ministers questions.

Born in Scotland to parents of Indian Muslim descent, Ayesha went onto study law, her first role being a press officer at the Department of Trade and Industry. She then took what she thought was a natural diversion into stand-up comedy, before pivoting back to politics as a Special Adviser for the Labour Party, working with them for eight years both in Government and Opposition. During her time in Westminster, she worked for Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband, advising them on Prime Minister’s Questions, speeches, media and policy as well as heading up initiatives on topics such as Women and Equality.

Since leaving front line politics, Ayesha’s expertise has become a much sought after due to her unique position to analyse and comment on current affairs with her signature wit and insight. Additional TV and Radio credits include: Politics Live (BBC2), The Talk (TalkTV), Sky Papers (Sky News), Newsnight (BBC2), Debate Night (BBC Scotland), The Media Show (Radio 4), The Today Programme (Radio 4) and CNN News, Richard Osman’s House Of Games (BBC Two), The Blame Game (BBC 2 and BBC 1 Northern Ireland) and Breaking The News (Radio Scotland).

As a comedian, she often parallels the current state of feminism with humour and honesty. She has so far toured 3 sell-out shows across the UK, including residencies at the prestigious Soho Theatre for each: Tales From The Pink Bus (2016), Girl On Girl – The Fight For Feminism (2018) and State Of The Nation (2022).