Robbie Hawkins: “I'm just living the dream, I'm doing my dream job”

Politics today is divisive. Historically on campus you were left-wing, but today you work with Tom Swarbrick and you used to work with Iain Dale, both of whom are more Conservative leaning. How do you bridge that divide?

I would rather work with someone that I disagree with than work with someone that I agree with. I think you can find yourself in an echo chamber and you don't open yourself up to outside influences. Although I was a pretty radical student activist, I'm definitely less so now. I have my views, but when you are a producer it isn't about your opinion - it's about getting the best out of the presenter. If my opinion was that important on this political issue, then I'd be the one presenting the programme.

My job is to get the best out of that presenter. If we're about to go into something, we want to make a really fiery, engaging, exciting programme in which we talk about the big political issue of the day. This presenter is going to go in all guns blazing and say what they think, I want to almost get them riled up.

If we're on the same side of the debate the whole time, there would be a feeling that we maybe wouldn't be open to those outside influences.

It is more exhausting having those conversations, but they're really important. No one has ever changed their mind as a result of being shouted at. They've changed their mind because someone is taking the trouble to understand their position and then they have adjusted their arguments accordingly. And that's the really important thing about it.

You should have an open-minded approach.

You have a strong family connection to Hull, and when you called your Grandma to let her know you were back on campus, she got quite emotional. How did it feel to be back?

My grandparents met at the University of Hull. My granddad (Terry Smith) was President of the Students' Union. His claim to fame used to be that he poured the first ever pint in the Students' Union at the University of Hull.

After graduating and getting married and moving elsewhere, they eventually moved back to Hull, and my granddad ended up heading up the Careers Service and working in the International Office. And my grandma (Dr Jean Smith) was very involved in the University. She got an Honorary Degree for the social work that she was doing locally.

I remember my mum grew up right here. I support Hull City and that's part of the reason why I went to Hull. I had a couple of options, and my Dad said: “If you go to Hull, I'll buy you a season ticket.”

It was really nice coming back today and just wandering around campus. I never thought I'd feel nostalgia for Doncaster train station, but just looking over on those tracks and looking back to over 10 years ago, it was really nice.

I just walked around thinking about my granddad, who passed away a few years ago now, and I called my grandma up and said I thought I’d give you a call and let you know that I'm here and, you know, I'm thinking about you and thinking about granddad.

In your career, you’ve gone from working in Parliament and reporting what’s happening there, to working on talk radio where the news is happening right there on your show.

News is people's lives. A lot of the stuff about Westminster is how this big vote is going to impact the Prime Minister, how it's going to bring down the Government. But actually, day-to-day, it doesn't impact people's lives that much.

On the other hand, hearing about that thing that might seem relatively minor, such as the cost of driving lessons and how that's impacting people's lives, or how local bus services are getting cut might seem reasonably trivial, but you can really learn how much of an impact it's having.

That’s the privilege that we have on LBC. We have ordinary people who want to give up their time, they're pulling over the car so they can phone a radio station. They might be waiting on hold so they can get on air to tell us their story and how their story impacts them and what they think about it. And I think that is just a brilliant thing.

Interview first published in 2024 and updated in June 2025. Since conducting this interview, Robbie has left his post as Tom Swarbrick’s Senior Producer on LBC to become Senior Journalist at Newsnight and, more recently, Assistant Editor.