TWO of the leading candidates to replace Laura Kuenssberg as BBC political editor have now ruled themselves out, prompting speculation few prominent journalists want the role.

Chris Mason, 41, the highly regarded presenter of Radio 4’s Any Questions, last week joined Kuenssberg’s deputy, Vicki Young, 51, who was the favourite for the role, in saying publicly that he did not want the £260,000-a-year post.

Reports today said Young’s husband, PR professional Rae Stewart, is understood to be having treatment for cancer.

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Mason is understood to want to concentrate on his Any Questions role, which he would have to give up if he became political editor, and on writing a book.

The job demands early starts for Radio 4’s Today programme, long days huddled in a coat on Westminster’s College Green, and late finishes for the News at Ten on BBC1.

Kuenssberg, 45, has covered a tumultuous seven years, with the EU referendum and its aftermath; the 2017 and 2019 general elections, and a pandemic. She is stepping down in April and will move into a senior presenting and reporting role. This may include becoming one of the presenters on Today.

The advent of social media has also made the role more difficult, with Kuenssberg receiving an onslaught of abuse online. In September 2017 she took a security guard to the Labour Party conference.

“It is a ferociously hard life in terms of the hours and what is expected of you, and to pile on top of that the expectation that you are going to be public enemy No 1 for all the Twitter keyboard warriors in the most vituperative, personal and unpleasant terms — that’s a very hard thing to cope with,” Andrew Marr, a former BBC political editor who is now a presenter on LBC and a commentator for the New Statesman told the Sunday Times. “You need a skin like a rhino and a powerful constitution to keep going.”

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Sarah Sands, the former editor of Today, told the paper: “It is the most important job at the BBC and the most exposed. You are also never off duty. Laura would be on the phone to me after 11pm and back on the Today programme first thing ... I quite understand how those who have recently crossed to be presenters and who probably have young families would run a mile from it.”

When Kuenssberg and her predecessor, the Today presenter Nick Robinson, were appointed, they were long considered the front-runners. That there isn’t such a clear candidate this time has prompted the intense speculation.

“It was utterly obvious who would get it: this time it isn’t,” a BBC source said.

However, others point to Jon Sopel, 62, the former North American editor who was previously chief political correspondent for BBC News and was passed over for the job when Kuenssberg was successful in 2015.

A BBC journalist said: “When you go for a job interview at the BBC, you always ask, ‘Who’s already got it?’ In this case, I believe that is Sopel.” A rumour within W1A is that Sopel wants to take over Marr’s role on the BBC’s Sunday morning political talk show alongside being political editor, and so is still locked in negotiations about his future role.

Marr said: “It is now Jon Sopel’s to lose — both because he has done a very big job in Washington recently and because he has long-term experience in Westminster. If they are going for a safe, reliable pair of hands, he is the obvious person to go for.”

Marr added that it would be “hard to do both roles”, however, given the demands of being political editor in particular.

The other BBC staffer whose name is starting to be mentioned is the political correspondent Alex Forsyth, who specialises in reporting outside the Westminster bubble and lives in Warwickshire.

She is viewed as a “dark horse” by BBC insiders and was described by one executive as having “the standing and stature that could easily lend itself to the job”.

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