Aisha Iqbal
Aisha Iqbal covers local and regional politics for the BBC, tracking how decisions by councils and political parties in Bradford and across Yorkshire play out in everyday life. Her reporting is distinguished by a focus on grassroots power, treating local politics as the place where questions of trust, representation and public services are decided. She links committee-room votes, neighbourhood disputes and national debates, showing who gains, who loses and how communities respond. Across broadcast and online platforms, she works in a clear, explanatory style that keeps complex civic issues accessible without losing detail.
Bradford council decisions and everyday services
A core strand of Iqbal’s work is scrutiny of Bradford Council’s decisions and their impact on basic services. In coverage of plans to reopen a household waste recycling centre, she follows the story from budget line to bin collection, showing how £400,000 originally earmarked for arts and culture events is being diverted to restore a closed tip and bank holiday opening across the district.
The reporting sets out the trade-offs between cultural funding and frontline services, and gives space to the political leadership’s argument that reopening the site is a priority for residents. In a separate piece on a £4.5m regeneration grant for a US-owned space testing centre in Keighley, she examines why public money is being used to support a private development, questioning the rationale and highlighting opposition concerns over value for taxpayers.
By pairing the promise of jobs with the scale of public investment, she frames the decision as a test of how local economic strategy serves the wider community.
Community politics, grooming gangs and trust
Iqbal’s reporting on grooming gangs in Bradford and Keighley shows the same emphasis on how politics intersects with community trust. In her coverage of the national inquiry into grooming gangs, she situates the story within local party politics, asking whether politicians can take partisan battles out of a debate that has deeply affected victims, families and neighbourhoods.
The piece explores how political actors talk about safeguarding and justice, and how their framing risks either rebuilding or eroding confidence in institutions meant to protect vulnerable people.
She brings out the tensions between calls for accountability, the danger of politicising trauma, and the need for long‑term change in policy and practice. The result is reporting that treats community safety and trust as political issues, not just criminal ones.
Elections, Muslim voters and national debates
Iqbal’s election coverage follows how national leaders and messages land with local voters, especially those who feel overlooked.
In her analysis of the prime minister’s apology over Gaza and its reception among Muslim voters in Bradford, she tests whether symbolic gestures can repair broken political relationships, drawing on constituencies where support has visibly shifted. She explores independent campaigns built around Gaza and ceasefire demands, and sets them against the long-standing majorities held by mainstream party candidates. In live reporting on a general election count in Bradford, she tracks the contest between Labour and independent candidates, describing how national exit polls collide with local dynamics shaped by foreign policy, trust and community mobilisation.
Across these pieces, she treats faith, foreign policy and representation as intertwined factors in how people choose their MPs, rather than siloed issues.
Civic life, culture and public figures
Alongside council chambers and election counts, Iqbal reports on culture and public figures when they intersect with civic identity. Her feature on David Hockney reflects on how a major artist’s work can reshape an individual life and a sense of place, using a personal narrative to connect art with wider cultural change. Professional profiles describe her as working across news, politics and culture for BBC outlets, underscoring a remit that goes beyond narrow political process coverage.
Earlier in her career she reported politics, culture and consumer issues for regional newspapers, a background that informs her attention to how policy debates touch everyday experiences.
In interviews about her path into political reporting, she emphasises grassroots and community politics and highlights stories where local decisions illuminate wider societal questions, a perspective that runs through her current work. Taken together, these strands give her coverage a consistent through‑line: politics as lived experience, shaped by culture, identity and the practical realities of local power.
4 more politics journalists.
Abbi Garton-Crosbie
Abbi Garton-Crosbie is a multimedia political reporter who treats independence as a live process shaped by Holyrood power struggles, party manoeuvres and grassroots pressure. She works at The National, a pro-independence newspaper, covering how political power is contested and exercised in contemporary Scotland, with a core focus on parties, parliament and the mechanics of constitutional change. She reports on parliamentary votes, government strategy around future independence referendums, and elections across Scotland in the wider context of devolution in Wales and Northern Ireland. Her work centres on party leadership, resignations and internal conflict, including long-form interviews with senior politicians and coverage of emerging and smaller parties. She examines far-right activity, protest politics and movement organisation, and runs policy-driven reporting on rent caps, AI data centres, health boards and public services, across written, video and podcast formats.
Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu
Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu is a politics reporter with Premium Times who treats politics as a system of rules, contests and consequences rather than personalities. He focuses on power struggles, security shocks and governance disputes shaping party competition in northern Nigeria, especially how violence, corruption investigations and economic strain intersect with political authority. He reports on Bauchi’s 2027 governorship race, APC primaries and PRP realignment, tracking defections, party constitutions and factional manoeuvring. His coverage of Jigawa and Yobe follows power-sharing fights, candidate substitutions and Tinubu reelection mobilisation efforts. He links banditry and local security crises in Kano and Zamfara to political structures, using precise locations and casualty figures. His investigative work on alleged shady dealings around the Dala Inland Dry Port and reporting on soaring cooking gas prices add a corruption and economic hardship lens.
Alessia Simona Maratta
Alessia Simona Maratta stands out for showing how political decisions, regulations and conflicts ripple through communities, pairing national and global stories with on-the-ground voices and clear policy explanations. She is a digital reporter, producer and editor with Global News’ network news desk, covering breaking news, crime, politics, public health, housing, labour, immigration, environment and climate, social issues and features. Her recent work spans politics, public health regulation, labour and technology, and human-interest features that ground complex issues in everyday experience. She reports on politics, policy and community impact, public health and social debates, and labour and regulation at the intersection of technology, globalization and worker rights. Alongside hard news, she produces features that use individual stories, straightforward narrative arcs and accessible explanations to connect history, science and policy to everyday life.
Aletha Adu
Aletha Adu tests political claims against evidence, procedure and accountability rather than treating them as theatre. She covers national politics for the Guardian as part of its parliamentary reporting team, focusing on Westminster party dynamics and standards in public life. Her beat includes party leadership, internal tensions, electoral strategy, public trust, political conduct, money in politics, security and the rules governing Parliament. She has reported on Nigel Farage and Reform UK, including claims about Russian hackers, a £5m gift, police referrals and a parliamentary standards inquiry. She has also covered Keir Starmer’s criticism of Rishi Sunak’s leadership. Adu moved from freelance reporting into political roles at major newspapers and has been named among influential women in Westminster. She also appears on television and radio to explain British politics as events unfold.