Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman to quit

May 2, 2014

The presenter of  show,, said on Wednesday he is to leave after 25 years. The BBC said Paxman had postponed his departure, after deciding upon it last summer, because Newsnight was going through "a difficult period".

Paxman became a notorious political interviewer after tearing a great number of political leaders apart: In an interview with regarding the 1995 dismissal of the director of the prison service,, when Howard didn't directly answer a question, Paxman asked again &mdash; eleven more times. In an interview with, he asked Blair whether he prayed with president. More recently, when  and junior minister  appeared on the show to defend a change in fuel duty policy, Paxman showed she was apparently too too junior to have any knowledge of the decision making process.

Paxman is not leaving his twenty-year role as presenter of .