Sky News political editor Beth Rigby running London marathon in honour of ‘dearest friend’
Sky News political editor and host of the Electoral Dysfunction podcast Beth Rigby shares her London Marathon journey…
I used to say I was never going to attempt to run a marathon: too hard, too long, too much training. But later this week, I am going to join 56,000 others and run the London Marathon.
It is honestly something I never thought I would do. I took up running in my 30s, somewhere between quitting smoking and having my children. I am not a natural long-distance runner. I am neither long nor lean. At school, I was better in a sprint than cross country. But struggling to breathe as you try to run a couple of kilometres is a great motivator not to pick up a Marlboro light again. So, I persevered and in 2017 ran my first half marathon.
Since then, I have run another five half marathons. Every time I crossed the finish line, I did so in wonderment that I’d run that far and completed the race, followed by utter bafflement as to why anyone would want to put themselves through running that distance all over again. I was never going to run a marathon.
But then last summer, my dearest friend Laura died from ovarian cancer after a two-year illness. She was just 48 years old, our birthdays just six days apart. Her death was absolutely devastating for her husband and her two sons, her family and friends.
Laura (left) with Beth
She died on June 17 in the middle of the general election campaign. I was in between presenting the Sky News Battle for No 10 election show – it was the last thing Laura watched on television – and preparing for the overnight election results show.
Laura had been seriously ill for a number of weeks, but her death was quite sudden. I found myself reeling with grief, but I had to keep going, so that’s what I did.
When I came out of the other side of that election and contemplated life without Laura, well, it was like staring into a massive black hole.
We called Laura our North Star because she was the doer and the leader. There was no one in my life as full of life and energy as Laura. She was irrepressible, infectious and very funny. She filled every room she entered, every conversation she joined, every endeavour she began.
I’m sure there will be many of you out there who have lost someone you deeply love who can relate to this – the desolation and loneliness you feel in those days and months afterwards as you try to come to terms with their absence from your daily life.
I know what Laura would have said, she’d have told me to get on with it and soon after her funeral, I quietly decided to run the London Marathon. It was my attempt to “get on with it” and in the process do something positive in Laura’s memory by raising money for the North London Hospice, who cared for her with such attention and empathy during the final stages of her life.
So this is how I went from never ever running a marathon to attempting the world’s biggest race this week and I am not doing it alone: when I told my friend Esme Wren about it – we did our first half marathon together back in 2017 – she signed up too, so we’ve been on the journey together, which has make it all a little less daunting and a little more doable.
Because marathon training – and the prospect of running for 26.2 miles – is full on, physically and mentally. For me it has involved running three times a week for 16 weeks, I have managed most of them running over 220 miles (that’s over 350km) in that time.
One is an interval run, in which you run very fast in short bursts, an easy run and then a long run. Between trying to fit in the runs, the family and being Sky News’ political editor with a very unpredictable schedule and frequent trips abroad, I have been – forgive the pun – run ragged.
Marathon training is just really time-intensive and, as BBC news presenter and runner extraordinaire Sophie Raworth told me – one massive upside of marathon training is the gang you become part of – there are no short-cuts when it comes to marathon training. You have to put in the miles, when it’s cold and dark and raining and you’d rather be doing anything else.
There was one occasion in early February when the only time I could do my long run – at this point an 8-miler – was on a Friday afternoon at 4pm. I ran down the canal path, first towards the Olympic Park in Stratford, before turning off to pick up Regents Canal towards Islington, went the wrong way and found myself lost on a deserted canal path, in the dark, being lashed by the driving rain.
Rishi Sunak during a Sky News election event with Beth Rigby, in Grimsby. Pic: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
I decided that this was a very bad idea and came off the canal to find I’d somehow got myself to Stepney Green Tube station. Like a modern-day Dick Whittington, I followed the City of London’s skyline to make my way home, picking up the train home from Liverpool Street (and a bottle of wine to celebrate my survival).
There is also the camaraderie. Tom Larkin, one of our brilliant producers at Sky News and a super runner, has offered all sorts of advice, from which gels to use – you take a gel every few miles into the race to refuel – to carb loading before the race.
He also pointed out to me when I was pondering why I got stomach cramping on my first 16 miler, that trying to run that far on an empty stomach lined by just an espresso was, well, suboptimal to say the least.
Sophie Raworth has been absolutely lovely and given me tonnes of advice too, from showing me great canal loops (and helping me not get lost) to giving me advice on which trainers to try.
One famous actor explained to me why I should absolutely keep to my pace and resist the adrenaline urge to go too fast at the start (his horror story about crippling lactic acid build-up in his legs at mile 20 was truly terrifying).
There is also the sheer admiration you develop for those people you know who run marathons. One former senior Labour adviser revealed to me he had run a dozen marathons when I told him of my own attempt.
I was so impressed by this that I told everyone I could about it whenever he was in my vicinity. Eventually, realising he was probably finding it a bit embarrassing, I stopped going on about it. But 12 marathons!
There are also politicians who have shared funny stories. Lord Vaizey, who raised £18,000 for charity when he ran the London Marathon in 2021, recounted how, somewhere in the depths of the race as he struggled on with an injury and a big dose of fatigue, he saw a small child pointing at him and shouting Mr Potato Head.
Ed Vaizey was rather put out by it: “I thought, who’s he calling Mr Potato Head? I don’t look like Mr Potato Head.”
Shortly afterwards, Ed was overtaken by a runner dressed up as Mr Potato Head.
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Then there’s the incredible generosity. I have been blown away by family, friends, colleagues, and complete strangers who have donated to the North London Hospice in Laura’s memory.
Hospice care is only partially funded by the government and the sector relies on charitable donations to keep it going, with a third of its funding coming from the NHS, while the rest is made up of donations and the hospice’s 17 charity shops.
Over 200 people have donated more than £11,500 to our marathon efforts. It has literally been rocket fuel in my trainers.
Too long, too hard, too much training: preparing for the marathon has felt like all of these things at different points in the past four months. But it has also been rewarding and enriching, as I achieved things I didn’t think I could and found a lovely camaraderie with fellow runners along the way.
And as for the grief, this marathon has become more than just a just a way of getting on with it, by literally putting one foot in front of the other: It has also become, through pounding the canal paths where Laura and I once walked, to the fundraising and conversations I’ve had with her family and friends about it, a way of celebrating and remembering Laura.
So, wish me luck on Sunday and if you see me running/shuffling past, give me a wave.
To follow Beth’s journey to the finish line, visit her Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/bethrigbysky/
While the politicians talk, so many people come from around the world to try to get across the Channel on small boats. But why?
Why make such a perilous crossing to try to get to a country that seems to be getting increasingly hostile to asylum seekers?
As the British and French leaders meet, with small boats at the forefront of their agenda, we came to northern France to get some answers.
It is not a new question, but it is peppered with fresh relevance.
Over the course of a morning spent around a migrant camp in Dunkirk, we meet migrants from Gaza, Iraq, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and beyond.
Some are fearful, waving us away; some are happy to talk. Very few are comfortable to be filmed.
All but one man – who says he’s come to the wrong place and actually wants to claim asylum in Paris – are intent on reaching Britain.
They see the calm seas, feel the light winds – perfect conditions for small boat crossings.
John has come here from South Sudan. He tells me he’s now 18 years old. He left his war-torn home nation just before his 16th birthday. He feels that reaching Britain is his destiny.
“England is my dream country,” he says. “It has been my dream since I was at school. It’s the country that colonised us and when I get there, I will feel like I am home.
“In England, they can give me an opportunity to succeed or to do whatever I need to do in my life. I feel like I am an English child, who was born in Africa.”
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He says he would like to make a career in England, either as a journalist or in human resources, and, like many others we meet, is at pains to insist he will work hard.
The boat crossing is waved away as little more than an inconvenience – a trifle compared with the previous hardships of his journey towards Britain.
We meet a group of men who have all travelled from Gaza, intent on starting new lives in Britain and then bringing their families over to join them.
One man, who left Gaza two years ago, tells me that his son has since been shot in the leg “but there is no hospital for him to go to”.
Next to him, a man called Abdullah says he entered Europe through Greece and stayed there for months on end, but was told the Greek authorities would never allow him to bring over his family.
Britain, he thinks, will be more accommodating. “Gaza is being destroyed – we need help,” he says.
Abdullah says ‘Gaza is being destroyed – we need help’
A man from Eritrea tells us he is escaping a failing country and has friends in Britain – he plans to become a bicycle courier in either London or Manchester.
He can’t stay in France, he says, because he doesn’t speak French. The English language is presented as a huge draw for many of the people we talk to, just as it had been during similar conversations over the course of many years.
I ask many of these people why they don’t want to stay in France, or another safe European country.
Some repeat that they cannot speak the language and feel ostracised. Another says that he tried, and failed, to get a residency permit in both France and Belgium.
But this is also, clearly, a flawed survey. Last year, five times as many people sought asylum in France as in Britain.
And French critics have long insisted that Britain, a country without a European-style ID card system, makes itself attractive to migrants who can “disappear”.
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A young man from Iraq, with absolutely perfect English, comes for a chat. He oozes confidence and a certain amount of mischief.
It has taken him only seven days to get from Iraq to Dunkirk; when I ask how he has made the trip so quickly, he shrugs. “Money talks”.
He looks around him. “Let me tell you – all of these people you see around you will be getting to Britain and the first job they get will be in the black market, so they won’t be paying any tax.
“Back in the day in Britain, they used to welcome immigrants very well, but these days I don’t think they want to, because there’s too many of them coming by boat. Every day it’s about seven or 800 people. That’s too many people.”
“But,” I ask, “if those people are a problem – then what makes you different? Aren’t you a problem too?”
He shakes his head emphatically. “I know that I’m a very good guy. And I won’t be a problem. I’ll only stay in Britain for a few years and then I’ll leave again.”
A man from Sri Lanka says he “will feel safe” when he gets to Britain; a tall, smiling man from Ethiopia echoes the sentiment: “We are not safe in our home country so we have come all this way,” he says. “We want to work, to be part of Britain.”
Emmanuel is another from South Sudan – thoughtful and eloquent. He left his country five years ago – “at the start of COVID” – and has not seen his children in all that time. His aim is to start a new life in Britain, and then to bring his family to join him.
He is a trained electrical engineer, but says he could also work as a lorry driver. He is adamant that Britain has a responsibility to the people of its former colony.
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“The British came to my country – colonising, killing, raping,” he said. “And we didn’t complain. We let it happen.
“I am not the problem. I won’t fight anyone; I want to work. And if I break the laws – if any immigrant breaks the laws – then fine, deport them.
“I know it won’t be easy – some people won’t like me, some people will. But England is my dream.”
Emmanuel Macron has said the UK and France have a “shared responsibility” to tackle the “burden” of illegal migration, as he urged co-operation between London and Paris ahead of a crunch summit later this week.
Addressing parliament in the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday, the French president said the UK-France summit would bring “cooperation and tangible results” regarding the small boats crisis in the Channel.
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King Charles III at the State Banquet for President of France Emmanuel Macron. Pic: PA
Mr Macron – who is the first European leader to make a state visit to the UK since Brexit – told the audience that while migrants’ “hope for a better life elsewhere is legitimate”, “we cannot allow our countries’ rules for taking in people to be flouted and criminal networks to cynically exploit the hopes of so many individuals with so little respect for human life”.
“France and the UK have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness,” he added.
Looking ahead to the UK-France summit on Thursday, he promised the “best ever cooperation” between France and the UK “to fix today what is a burden for our two countries”.
Sir Keir Starmer will hope to reach a deal with his French counterpart on a “one in, one out” migrant returns deal at the key summit on Thursday.
King Charles also addressed the delegations at a state banquet in Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, saying the summit would “deepen our alliance and broaden our partnerships still further”.
King Charles speaking at state banquet welcoming Macron.
Sitting next to President Macron, the monarch said: “Our armed forces will cooperate even more closely across the world, including to support Ukraine as we join together in leading a coalition of the willing in defence of liberty and freedom from oppression. In other words, in defence of our shared values.”
In April, British officials confirmed a pilot scheme was being considered to deport migrants who cross the English Channel in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers in France with legitimate claims.
The two countries have engaged in talks about a one-for-one swap, enabling undocumented asylum seekers who have reached the UK by small boat to be returned to France.
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Britain would then receive migrants from France who would have a right to be in the UK, like those who already have family settled here.
The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.
President Macron greets Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at his address to parliament in Westminster.
Elsewhere in his speech, the French president addressed Brexit, and said the UK could not “stay on the sidelines” despite its departure from the European Union.
He said European countries had to break away from economic dependence on the US and China.
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“Our two countries are among the oldest sovereign nations in Europe, and sovereignty means a lot to both of us, and everything I referred to was about sovereignty, deciding for ourselves, choosing our technologies, our economy, deciding our diplomacy, and deciding the content we want to share and the ideas we want to share, and the controversies we want to share.
“Even though it is not part of the European Union, the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines because defence and security, competitiveness, democracy – the very core of our identity – are connected across Europe as a continent.”
The Princess of Wales and celebrities attended the King’s star-studded state banquet on Tuesday, where Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
On the first day of Mr Macron’s state visit, King Charles gave a toast in French and said the three-day trip was another chance to “celebrate a deep and enduring friendship”.
“What’s possibly the most remarkable thing is the way in which the speciality of one country is part of the story of the other,” the monarch said.
“For centuries, our citizens have admired one another. We’ve made each other laugh, and we’ve imitated one another.”
The Prince and Princess of Wales at the State Banquet. Pic: PA
The banquet hall at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
The King makes a speech at a banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
King Charles looks at Emmanuel Macron at a state banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
After the King’s speech, Mr Macron told him France had a “real affection for your mother” Queen Elizabeth II, adding he believed the feeling was “reciprocal”.
“She was your queen,” he said. “To us, she was the Queen.”
He capped off his speech – which repeated his calls for closer relations that he made earlier in the Palace of Westminster – by saying: “In honour of the United Kingdom, of this entente amico that unites our two fraternal peoples in an unwavering alliance.
“Long live the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland! Long live France!”
Emmanuel Macron gives a speech at a state banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
The Princess of Wales also made her first appearance at a state banquet in almost two years, sitting next to the French president.
She last made an appearance at a grand royal dinner in November 2023 in honour of the South Korean president. It comes after she opened up about her “rollercoaster” cancer recovery last week.
Emmanuel Macron and Kate, the Princess of Wales, share a toast. Pic: PA
Also in attendance were Sir Mick Jagger, frontman of The Rolling Stones, who was joined by his fiancee Melanie Hamrick, and Sir Elton John, who was accompanied by his husband David Furnish.
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Mick Jagger taking his seat at the state banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
Elton John and David Furnish at the state banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
Meanwhile, it was announced that the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the Norman conquest of England, will return to the UK for the first time in more than 900 years, and will feature in an exhibition from September 2026 to July 2027.
Mr Macron joked ahead of the state banquet that negotiations to bring the 11th-century artwork back to the UK took longer “than all the Brexit tests”. Talks on a loan had started as early as 2018.
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