Sarah Anne Louise Montague, Lady Brooke, is a British journalist, best known as one of the regular presenters of the BBC Radio 4 early morning current affairs programme, Today. After 18 years, she left the programme in April 2018 to take over the lead on the station's lunchtime news broadcast, The World at One.
Montague's first occupation was as a stockbroker for County NatWest and then a Eurobond dealer with NatWest Capital Markets in London. She then went into business in London with the owner of men's clothing retailerCharles Tyrwhitt. Montague began her journalistic career with Channel Television in 1991. She joined Reuters in January 1995 and then became business correspondent for Sky News in January 1996. She joined the BBC during October 1997, and presented Newsnight and BBC News, before joining the Todaynews programme on BBC Radio 4 in 2002. She presented the very first programme on BBC News 24 with Gavin Esler on 9 November 1997. She has also presented HARDtalk on BBC News. In December 2008, she hosted BBC World's Nobel Minds in the library of the Royal Palace, Stockholm. The 2008 Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, and Literature had a round-table discussion on issues of global concern and their own contributions to the world of knowledge. On 6 November 2010, Montague broke a strikeat the BBC called by the National Union of Journalists. She arrived to present the Today programme at 3:30 am, along with fellow presenter Evan Davis, thereby not technically crossing the picket line. On 15 July 2011, she again broke an NUJ strike by presenting Today with Justin Webb, again by arriving early. In 2013, she was awarded an honorary degree Doctor of Letters by the University of Sussex. On 10 February 2015, she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Lawshonoris causa from the University of Bristol. After 18 years, she left Radio 4’s flagship current affairs programme in April 2018 to take over the lead on the lunchtime news broadcast The World at One from Martha Kearney. She was earning much less than her male colleagues, with John Humphrys earning more than four times her salary. She described herself as "incandescent with rage" when she found out she was earning less than other presenters. In January 2020 Montague revealed that she had received a £400,000 settlement and an apology from the BBC for her unequal treatment. In 2018, she was criticised for misattributing the Electoral Commission's findings that the Vote Leave campaign broke the law in the 2016 referendum, thereby protecting several government ministers from pressure to resign. She repeatedly referred to “these allegations”, when they were, in fact, the findings – the verdict – of the statutory body charged with protecting the 2016 referendum and the integrity of UK elections.. The Electoral Commission finding and fine were overruled in court in July 2019. The defendant in the court case said "This raises serious questions about its conduct both during and after the referendum.".
Personal life
In 2002, Montague married businessman Richard Christopher Brooke. They are friends of former Prime Minister David Cameron, with whom Brooke went to Eton College. Montague is the mother of three daughters and also has a stepdaughter. In 2012, Mrs Brooke became Lady Brooke, when her husband inherited the family baronetcy, to become Sir Christopher Brooke, Bt.
