Robin Francis Leigh OakleyOBE (born 20 August 1941) is a British journalist. From 1992 to 2000 he was political editor at the BBC and from 2000 to 2008 he was European political editor at CNN International. He is from Kidderminster in Worcestershire.
He started his career on the Liverpool Daily Post where he became political editor. He was then the Crossbencher columnist and assistant editor on The Sunday Express and was assistant editor of the Daily Mail from 1981 to 1986. Between 1986 and 1992, he was a columnist and political editor for The Times. He then moved to the BBC, where he was political editor between 1992 and 2000. During this period he regularly presented political news items on BBC television news. His predecessor as BBC political editor was John Cole.
Oakley was succeeded as political editor in summer 2000 by Andrew Marr,[1] despite having intended to remain at the BBC to cover the upcoming general election.[2] After leaving the BBC, Oakley became CNN International's European political editor. He is also an expert in horse racing, and has written the Turf column in The Spectator since 1994, as well as being the racing correspondent of the Financial Times for several years.
Author
His 2000 book Valley of The Racehorse is about the racing community in the Lambourn valley. His 2001 book Inside Track is based on his experiences as a political journalist.
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