September launch for ‘Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips’

Ahead of an important year for politics both in the UK and around the world, Sky News has confirmed that a new show, Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, will launch Sunday 3rd September.

Trevor Phillips:

“It’s a privilege to be inheriting the Sunday morning seat from my friend and colleague Sophy Ridge. The longer show will give us a chance to include a wider range of voices and to report what’s happening as it happens, but also to step back and ask if we’re really seeing the whole story.

“Viewers who care know that real politics isn’t just about what MPs are saying to each other – so we’ll be talking to people way beyond Westminster about business, about culture, about science and technology, religion and sport – all issues that shape the big political choices.”

Trevor will host this flagship weekly programme that aims to set the political agenda, delve deep into the big stories, and hear from news-making guests. Starting at 8:30am, the 90-minute show will have a welcoming approach to all sides of the political debate, putting people at the heart of the discussion, while getting under the surface of the wider issues and the decision-makers impacting them.

As well as the big set-piece interviews with high-profile politicians, Trevor will speak to cultural and institutional leaders, figures from business, the arts, science and tech, and key protagonists from the week’s most newsworthy stories.

He will harness the expertise of a panel of guests with experienced and diverse backgrounds, to draw out key questions before and after the interviews and react and respond to what’s been said.

Trevor Phillips:

“And while we won’t be afraid to ask what needs to be asked, we know that viewers aren’t tuning in for a shouting match. With us, the answers are always going to be more important than the questions – because  that’s how we hold our leaders to account.” 

This fresh format, along with Phillips’ four decades of experience in politics, business and human rights, will bring a discursive quality to the show, that gives the audience clarity on the issues that matter most to them.

Phillips has previously presented Sky News’ Sunday politics show, covering for Sophy Ridge’s maternity leave in 2021, when he became the first black host of a flagship UK politics show in the UK. A former head of current affairs at ITV station LWT, Phillips won Royal Television Society journalism awards in 1988 and 1993, before landing the RTS documentary series award for Windrush in 1998.

Phillips recently fronted Windrush and Us, a Sky News documentary exploring the experiences of younger generations of Windrush descendants that asked what the future of black Britain will look like.

In 2020, he was shortlisted in the British Journalism Awards for Comment Writer of the Year. The founding chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Phillips previously chaired the Commission for Racial Equality and was the elected chair of the London Assembly.

David Rhodes, Executive Chairman, Sky News:

“Trevor Phillips will lead Sunday’s most thoughtful conversations on this new programme. Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips comes just at the right time, with Beth Rigby, Sam Coates, Sophy Ridge, and all our robust team supporting a political report that’s second-to-none going into a critical election cycle. Audiences will appreciate Trevor’s experience, intellect – and warmth on air and online each Sunday morning.”

From 3rd September, Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips will air every Sunday 08:30-10:00 and is available to watch on Sky News – Freeview 233, Sky 501, Virgin 603, BT 313, YouTube & the Sky News website and App.