Journalism lecturers were bursting with pride this week when outgoing Masters student Andrew Spence interviewed the Prime Minister.
Andrew, who competed his MA Journalism last term and is yet to graduate, completed his week rubbing shoulders with two former PMs, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, at the funeral of former Deputy PM John Prescott.
Polly Sharpe, programme leader for MA Journalism, said: “Andrew started at LJMU wanting to go into political journalism – to see him interviewing the Prime Minister just months after completing the course is fantastic.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to see our students putting into practice all of the journalism skills they receive on our MA programme.”
Andrew is a local democracy reporter for Reach PLC on the main media outlet in East Yorkshire, the Hull Daily Mail.
His senior reporter Ivan Morris Poxton said: “Andrew is a credit to LJMU’s journalism school. He’s become a most valued colleague in the five or so months he’s been in the Hull and East Riding role.”
Andrew had already interviewed a range of politicians including MPs, cabinet members, and council leaders but says the chance to interview the Prime Minister was incredible.
“I wasn’t overly nervous, more excited, as I knew it was an incredible opportunity. The only thing I was nervous about was not getting any good lines out of it, but luckily, I did in the end.”
The 'surreal' experience of attending Lord John Prescott's funeral in Hull https://t.co/SivcwocR0z
— Andy Spence (@andygspence) January 30, 2025
The interview was set up to be about local NHS provision, with the government publicising new facilities but Andrew also used the opportunity to ask him about the pushing back of a large road project which has caused a lot of anger and frustration in the city.
With a PM interview in the bag, Andrew’s coverage of former Hull MP, John Prescott’s funeral naturally made the front page and it was, he says “an honour” to be one of the few journalists invited inside Hull Minster to report on the service.
“I’ve always loved politics, so journalism always seemed a good fit which is why after my Politics BA, I decided to do the Journalism MA at LJMU,” he said.
“I had a big ‘wow’ moment in Liverpool was when one of my stories went into Liverpool Echo and I remember finding it so cool going into Tesco and seeing my own name in the paper. I knew then that this is definitely what I wanted to do.”
Fran Yeoman, head of LJMU’s journalism department, said: “The fact that Andrew is already working on stories this big is testament to his talent and to the outstanding training he received from LJMU’s Journalism’s teaching team of highly-experienced journalists.
“We pride ourselves on preparing all our students to dive straight into the industry when they leave us, but even so we don’t necessarily expect them to be interviewing the PM quite so quickly! Andrew has a bright future and we’re looking forward to seeing what he does next.”