Reeta Chakrabarti

Reeta Chakrabarti is a BBC News presenter and correspondent. She combines presenting on the One, Six and Ten O'Clock News on BBC1 with being UK Affairs Correspondent. She has spent most of her career at the BBC, and was previously Education and Social Affairs correspondent. She also spent many years reporting politics from Westminster.

Reeta started out as a producer on BBC Radio 4, working on the Today programme, the World at One and PM. She then became a reporter on 5 Live Breakfast, in which she covered the French presidential elections, and the Dunblane killings.

She later became a general news correspondent working in television as well as radio. In 1997, she became the BBC Community Affairs Correspondent, covering the Stephen Lawrence inquest, and subsequent public inquiry. She has also covered Home Affairs, including the Damilola Taylor murder trial; and Health. During her time at Westminster, Reeta covered three general elections, and several changes of party leaders. Other notable stories included the cash for honours affair, MPs expenses, and fronting audience reaction pieces, known as the "Worm" after the election leaders' debates in 2010.

On becoming Education Correspondent Reeta covered changes to university tuition fees; the introduction of free schools, and growth in academies; and changes to exams and the curriculum. She reported from South Korea on why East Asian pupils are far ahead of those in Britain in international league tables. On the social affairs side, she has reported on stories relating to adoption, poverty, and social mobility in the UK. Abroad she has looked at the success of women bankers in India, and why the pace of life in Denmark is healthier than in the UK. She has also done wider pieces looking at the implications for the public of successive budgets, and recently reported on the death and funeral of Lady Thatcher. Reeta has also presented on the BBC News Channel, BBC World, and Radio 4's The World Tonight. She has a degree in English and French from Oxford.

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