Robert James Kenneth Peston (born 25 April 1960) is an English journalist, presenter, and author. He is the political editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston (previously Peston on Sunday). From 2006 until 2014, he was the business editor of BBC News and its economics editor from 2014 to 2015. He became known to the wider public with his reporting on the late 2000s financial crisis, especially with his exclusive information on the Northern Rock crisis. He is the founder of the education charity Speakers for Schools. Early life Robert James Kenneth Peston was born into a Jewish family on 25 April 1960, the son of Helen Conroy and Maurice Peston, Baron Peston (1931–2016), an economist and Labour life peer. As the son of a life baron, he is entitled to the courtesy title "The Honourable", but does not use it. He attended Highgate Wood Secondary School in London. He graduated with a second-class degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Balliol College, Oxford, and then studied at the Université libre de Bruxelles. Career Peston briefly worked as a stockbroker at Williams de Broë, becoming a journalist in 1983 at the Investors Chronicle and joining The Independent newspaper on its launch in 1986. From 1989 to 1990, Peston worked for the short-lived Sunday Correspondent newspaper as Deputy City Editor, before being appointed City Editor of the Independent on Sunday in 1990. From 1991 to 2000, he worked for the Financial Times. At the FT, he was – at various times – Political Editor, Banking Editor and head of an investigations unit (which he founded). During his time as Political Editor, he memorably fell out with the then Downing Street Press Secretary Alastair Campbell, who regularly mimicked Peston's habit of flicking back his hair, and once responded to a difficult question with the words: "Another question from the Peston school of smartarse journalism." He became close friends with fellow journalist, now PR man, Roland Rudd, where the two were known as the "Pest and the Rat". His last position at the FT was Financial Editor (in charge of business and financial coverage). In 2000, he became editorial director of the online financial analysis service Quest, owned by the financial firm Collins Stewart. At the same time, he became a contributing editor of The Spectator and a weekly columnist for The Daily Telegraph. In 2001, he