Born in Guildford, Surrey, Newman is a daughter of two chemistry teachers, and was on the path to a career as a violinist or in the legal profession before changing her plans as a result of seeing British Broadcasting Corporation journalist Kate Adie on television
Newman graduated with a first from University of Oxford, where she read English at Lady Margaret Hall.
After university, Newman briefly worked for Media Week and The Independent (as business correspondent) before joining the Financial Times at the age of 23. In 2000, Newman gained a Laurence Stern fellowship to work at The Washington Post for four months. During her period in the United States, she followed the 2000 Presidential campaign of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. and uncovering five illegal immigrants who were employed in the home office
Newman became the first female co-presenter of the programme in 2011.
Alongside this, she has also headed the team behind the FactCheck blog.
Newman has commented that sexism was endemic at Westminster during her period as a lobby correspondent there, but has also said that the newspaper industry is even worse. In late 2013, she travelled with William Hague and Angelina Jolie to highlight the effect of warzone rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Newman also investigated the balance of the curriculum in some faith schools in the United Kingdom for the Dispatches series on Channel 4. A regular commentator on politics in other media outlets, Newman has appeared as a guest panellist on Have I Got News Foreign You and blogs for The Daily Telegraph and Economia magazine.
She was announced as one of the judges for the Baileys Women"s Prize for Fiction in 2015.
Mosque "ushering" apology
On February 1, 2015 Newman tweeted that she was "ushered onto the street" when she went to South London Islamic Centre (SLIC) for a "Visit My Mosque" programme in error. A spokesperson for the Hyderi Islamic Centre had said Newman had simply visited the wrong address. Later, The Huffington Post obtained CCTV footage which, it claimed, "appeared to contradict" her accountant
Newman has since apologised.
From 2013 to 2015, Newman"s pursuit of a story about the allegations of improper conduct levelled at Lord Rennard, once a leading figure in the Liberal Democrats, included her participation in an LBC local London radio phone-in on 27 February 2013 to quiz deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on the issue.
