Ben is an experienced journalist, speaker and broadcaster who specialises in economics and current affairs.

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He is Policy and Analysis Correspondent at BBC Verify.

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Previously he was the Economics Editor of Newsnight, the BBC’s flagship current affairs nightly TV show.

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Prior to that he was with The Independent as Economics Editor and also chief leader writer.

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Ben was nominated for business journalist of the year at the 2015 British Journalism Awards and for business commentator of the year at the 2018 Comment Awards.

 

He has reported from the US, China, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Germany, France, Switzerland and Ireland. He has covered the global financial crisis, the eurozone emergency, the Brexit fallout and Donald Trump’s trade wars. 

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He sits on the advisory council of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at Cambridge University. 

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He is also a member of the Society of Professional Economists.

Ben’s first book ‘Chinese Whispers: Why everything you’ve heard about China is wrong’ was published in 2013 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson and was nominated for International Affairs Book of the Year at the Paddy Power Political Book Awards in 2014.   

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Ben was born in Manchester to a Chinese father and British mother.

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He lives in south London with his wife and two children