Good Morning Britain’s chief correspondent Richard Gaisford is leaving the ITV programme after more than 25 years.
Gaisford joined GMTV (since rebranded to Good Morning Britain) as a correspondent in February 2000 and became chief correspondent six years later, making him the longest to hold the role in the programme’s history.
Gaisford will continue to work on current affairs programming with ITV.
He said: “I have been privileged to have the best job in TV news for the last quarter of a century, trusted to take a front row seat at history making events all over the world.
“I have worked with an incredible team of journalists and camera operators, broadcasting to a highly responsive breakfast audience.
“I’m really excited about moving on to new opportunities in a fast-changing media world, starting another chapter in my career.”
Gaisford was the first UK broadcast journalist to report live from Basra in Iraq in 2003, reported from the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, was in South Africa for the death of Nelson Mandela, in Zimbabwe for the fall of Robert Mugabe, and in the Atacama Desert for the rescue of the Chilean miners.
Over the past several years he has frequently reported from Ukraine and the Middle East.
Good Morning Britain editor Daniel Robinson said Gaisford was a “consummate professional and a first-class broadcaster, who has kept the nation informed over their breakfast from wherever in the world the story takes him” and has been a “key role” in the success of the programme since it was created in 2014.
ITV’s director of news and current affairs Andrew Dagnell said: “Richard is one of the most accomplished and respected journalists in British broadcasting.
“His work has helped define what audiences expect from breakfast news – authoritative, human and trusted. Few reporters have covered such a breadth of stories with the same composure and clarity that Richard brings to every assignment.
“He leaves with the gratitude and admiration of colleagues across ITV News, and I look forward to working with Richard on some exciting current affairs in the future.”
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