Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

In praise of Kay Burley, Sky’s high-heeled hellcat

There is a divide in Britain, one that cleaves us apart more sharply than Leave vs Remain, north vs south, or moody Owen Jones vs needy Owen Jones.

Our real national fault-line is Kay Burley. The Sky News presenter is everywhere right now. She was named Broadcast Journalist of the Year by the London Press Club last week, beating out the tough, brilliant Laura Kuenssberg, and was the subject of a 3,000-word profile in the Times, a deliciously candid conversation about facelifts, menopause and being ‘the high-heeled hellcat of Hounslow’. Yesterday, she debuted on Andrew Marr and stole the show, not least when she flicked through the Sun on Sunday and treated viewers to a racy close-up of Brazilian model Barbara Fialho. Her live news instincts kicked in and she flipped to the back page sharpish.

Burley is a barometer of sound judgement, a Rorschach test for separating out the good-humoured from the prigs.

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