Christopher Hope is a Westminster journalist, broadcaster and podcast presenter. He became GB News Political Editor and Head of Politics in August 2023 after almost two decades at The Daily Telegraph. His work includes political interviews, daily reporting and the podcast formats associated with his nickname, Chopper.
His career began well before television presenting. Trade magazines, Scottish business newspapers, City reporting and home affairs all formed part of the route to the parliamentary lobby.
Contents
Quick Bio
| Name | Christopher Hope |
|---|---|
| Profession | Political journalist and broadcaster |
| Employer | GB News |
| Role | Political Editor and Head of Politics |
| Joined GB News | August 2023 |
| Earlier employer | The Daily Telegraph |
| Education | Bristol University; Cardiff journalism training |
| Podcast identity | Chopper |
Who Is Christopher Hope?
Hope is a political editor whose work crosses print and broadcasting. His official biography identifies him as born in Liverpool in 1971. It describes an early interest in journalism through work experience at the Formby Times and the Formby and Southport Globe.
Education and First Reporting Jobs
Hope studied politics at Bristol University and completed postgraduate journalism training at Cardiff. His official career history dates his departure from Cardiff to 1995. He then worked for road-safety charity Brake before joining PrintWeek in January 1997 and Construction News later that year.
In 1999 he became a business correspondent at The Scotsman. He subsequently joined the launch team of Business a.m. and later worked as City Editor for The Herald in London. These appointments established a business-reporting background before his move to national political journalism.
The Telegraph Years
Hope joined The Daily Telegraph as a business correspondent in October 2003. He later moved between the City, political lobby and home affairs roles. His official chronology records successive political reporting and editorial promotions.
When his departure was announced in 2023, Press Gazette identified him as the newspaper’s associate editor of politics and emphasized his almost twenty-year connection with the title. The description is more precise than simply calling him a former newspaper reporter: he had reached a senior editorial position.
Chopper’s Podcasts
Hope’s own broadcasting history dates Chopper’s Brexit Podcast to March 2017. The title changed to Chopper’s Politics in 2020, reflecting a wider brief than the original Brexit focus. The site records interviews with prominent politicians and a substantial archive of episodes.
Podcast interviews allow a different rhythm from a brief bulletin contribution. A guest can be questioned over an extended conversation, while listeners follow one presenter across successive episodes. That continuity helped make Chopper a recognizable professional identity alongside Christopher Hope.
The GB News Podcast
The Acast listing for Chopper’s Political Podcast identifies Hope as GB News Political Editor and describes a Westminster pub setting for conversations with guests from politics and beyond. It is a distinct current program listing, rather than evidence that his Telegraph series simply continued unchanged.
The titles are similar enough to confuse readers. The Telegraph’s Chopper’s Politics and the GB News-branded Chopper’s Political Podcast belong to different stages of his career.
Moving to GB News
Hope joined GB News in August 2023 as Political Editor and Head of Politics. His personal site continues to list those titles. A Royal Television Society diary published for the December 2025–January 2026 period also identifies him as Political Editor and describes reporting, presenting and podcast work.
Independent political coverage provides a more recent cross-check. The Guardian’s October 29, 2026 politics live report identifies him as GB News Political Editor while describing a question he put to John Healey. This supports using that position in a November 2026 biography.
Family and Public Charity Work
Hope’s official family page identifies his wife as Sarah and says they have three children. It also records the family’s experience of a serious bus crash in 2007 and Sarah’s later work supporting road-crash victims and child amputees.
The page describes Elizabeth’s Legacy of Hope, founded by Sarah and her twin sister Victoria in 2011, and says its work was transferred to partner charities when it closed in 2023. That history should be kept distinct from an active organization accepting donations today.
The MPs’ Expenses Investigation
Hope’s role in The Telegraph’s 2009 MPs’ expenses investigation is one of his best-documented reporting milestones. He later revisited the story for the newspaper’s I Witnessed History podcast. Its February 2022 episode presented him as a reporter directly involved in bringing the revelations to publication.
The published episode description sets out a compressed investigation: a hard drive, thousands of pages covering MPs’ claims and nine days before the first stories appeared. That offers a concrete picture of the work behind the scandal, rather than treating it only as a famous headline.
Hope’s contribution was part of a larger newsroom effort. Describing the investigation as a team achievement preserves the distinction between his individual role and the collective work required to examine and publish the material. It is also consistent with the team award recorded in his official biography.
Awards Across Different Career Stages
Hope’s official website lists an International Building Press Young Journalist of the Year win in 1998. This belongs to his specialist reporting years, before The Telegraph and Westminster became the main setting of his career.
The same page records a Scottish Press Awards Scoop of the Year finalist place in 2002 and a team Scoop of the Year win at the 2010 Press Awards. It also lists Best Political Podcast finalist recognition at the Publisher Podcast Awards in 2022 and 2023.
These milestones cover trade reporting, Scottish journalism, a national newsroom investigation and audio. They reflect the different professional settings in which he worked. The distinction between winning and reaching a shortlist matters: the podcast entries are finalist credits.
How He Describes Television Political Reporting
In a December 2025 Royal Television Society diary, Hope described interviewing Keir Starmer at the G20 in South Africa. He explained that short interviews with a prime minister could generate answers subsequently debated across the broadcaster’s programs.
He also described a week spanning Downing Street, Parliament, studios and a Radio 4 Any Questions? appearance in Teesside. He estimated that about three-quarters of his GB News role involved Westminster reporting, alongside occasional presenting and podcast work.
The diary gives a more specific account of his workload than the title Political Editor alone. It also records the practical adjustment from print to television: learning production vocabulary and working with producers on live contributions. Hope presented the transition with humor, including his initial confusion over colleagues wishing him a successful live broadcast.
Discussing the Lobby and Journalistic Independence
Hope was interviewed by Media Masters in August 2019, while still at The Telegraph. The published episode outline identifies the unusual situation of Boris Johnson, a former colleague, becoming prime minister. It also flags discussion of criticisms that Westminster reporters and politicians were too close.
These were professional questions rooted in his own working environment. His career had placed him inside the parliamentary lobby and at a newspaper associated with Johnson, making the relationship between access and independence a direct interview topic.
The Media Masters outline also connected his family’s experience to charity work supporting child amputees. That adds another documented public conversation about his life beyond the daily political story, without requiring speculation about private circumstances.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Christopher Hope work?
He is Political Editor and Head of Politics at GB News.
When did he join GB News?
He joined in August 2023.
What is Chopper’s Political Podcast?
It is his GB News-branded interview podcast.
Did he work at The Telegraph?
Yes, from 2003 until his move to GB News in 2023.
Who is Christopher Hope’s wife?
His official biography identifies his wife as Sarah.
Read more about British broadcasting careers in our profiles of Olivia Utley and Nick Eardley.
Sources
- Christopher Hope — career
- Christopher Hope — broadcasting
- Christopher Hope — family
- Press Gazette — GB News move
- Acast — podcast
- Royal Television Society — TV diary
- The Guardian — October 2026 reporting
- The Telegraph — I Witnessed History
- Christopher Hope — awards record
- Media Masters — 2019 interview outline
