Rae Stewart: Scottish Journalist, Westminster Correspondent and Novelist

Rae Stewart was a Scottish journalist whose career moved, unusually, from the front of the camera to the room where government messages are made — and then back again, to writing fiction. As a Westminster correspondent for STV and GMTV Scotland, he reported British politics from London to a Scottish audience. As press secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, he helped to shape how a coalition government explained itself. And as a novelist, he turned that experience of politics and power into two published thrillers. He died in June 2023, aged 56, after a long illness he had disclosed himself many years earlier.

That three-part career is what makes Stewart worth remembering separately from the headlines he reported: the correspondent who knew how a story would play, the press secretary who knew how a story was made, and the novelist who knew what both worlds looked like from the inside.

Quick Bio

GMTV Scotland and STV Westminster

Stewart’s broadcast career began in Scotland. He became a correspondent for GMTV Scotland in 1995, reporting for the breakfast television audience in a period when Scottish politics was moving towards devolution and a Scottish Parliament. Reporting from Scotland, rather than from London, shaped his journalism: he was explaining Westminster to viewers who experienced its decisions at a distance, and who had their own parliament, parties and debates to follow. In 2000, he moved to London as STV’s Westminster correspondent, a role that put him at the centre of British politics for a Scottish audience. The Westminster correspondent’s job is a particular one. It is not simply reporting what happened in Parliament; it is deciding, day after day, which London stories matter in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, and explaining them in terms that make sense there. Stewart held that brief through a period of major change in British politics, including the early years of devolved government and the run-up to the 2010 general election that would change his own career. He also worked for Sky and ITN during his broadcast years, experience that broadened his reporting beyond a single channel.

Press secretary to Nick Clegg and the Iraq Inquiry

After the 2010 general election produced the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition, Stewart became press secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, a role he held from 2010 to 2015. A press secretary does not simply answer journalists’ questions; he helps to decide what a minister will say, when he will say it, and how a policy will be presented. For a former correspondent, the move offered an insider’s view of the process he had previously reported from the outside. Stewart later became head of communications for the Iraq Inquiry, the official inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war, chaired by Sir John Chilcot. That was a different kind of communications job: not selling a government’s message, but explaining an independent inquiry’s work to the press and public, where every statement would be scrutinised. The inquiry reported in 2016, after seven years of work. Competitor pages that describe Stewart only as a journalist miss this second career entirely. Yet it is arguably the more distinctive part of his story: far fewer journalists are trusted to run communications for a deputy prime minister and then for one of the most sensitive public inquiries in modern British history.

Water UK, consultancy and Covid work

After government and inquiry work, Stewart moved into corporate communications as director of corporate affairs at Water UK, the trade body for the water industry. In 2020, he founded his own consultancy, Ashburn Fleming, and during the Covid pandemic he worked on NHS Test and Trace, the large-scale testing and contact-tracing programme.

Novelist: The Vibe and Smoke on the Water

Alongside his journalism and communications work, Stewart was a published novelist. His first novel, The Vibe, was published in 2017, and his second, Smoke on the Water, followed in 2023. Both were political thrillers, drawing on his knowledge of Westminster, the press and the security world — the kind of fiction that depends on getting the detail right, from how a newsroom works to how a government department handles a crisis. After Stewart died, his widow, BBC political journalist Vicki Young, sat on the judging panel of the Pitch Perfect Prize in 2024, a memorial prize established in his name for crime-fiction writing.

Illness and death, as reported

Stewart died on 20 June 2023, aged 56. Obituaries and tributes in Metro, The National, The Times and STV News recorded his death and his career, and noted that he had been diagnosed with cancer in 1993, a diagnosis he had disclosed publicly himself. This article reports that fact only as the obituaries state it, and goes no further into his medical history. His illness was a long-standing part of his life, but it was not the defining part of his career, and it is not treated here as such.

Family and the Vicki Young link

Stewart was married to BBC political journalist Vicki Young, whom he married in 2005. Young, Deputy Political Editor of BBC News and presenter of Politics Live, is the relation link for this article: they worked in the same Westminster world, covering the same stories from different newsrooms, before Stewart moved into government communications. This article does not go further into family life. Sources conflict about children, and no names are reliably published, so no claim about children is made here at all. That omission is deliberate. Children of public figures are private individuals, and where sources disagree, the only responsible course is to say nothing rather than to repeat a contested figure.

What competitors get wrong or leave out

Most short pages about Stewart make three mistakes. First, they describe him only as a journalist, and miss the press secretary and Iraq Inquiry roles that occupied the middle of his career and explain much of what followed. Second, they treat his novels as a hobby, rather than as published work in its own right, and miss the memorial Pitch Perfect Prize that connects his writing to his legacy. Third, low-quality pages pad his profile with guessed personal details and conflicting family claims, while leaving out the verifiable career facts listed above.

Frequently asked questions

Who was Rae Stewart? A Scottish journalist, communications professional and novelist, and a former Westminster correspondent for STV.

What was his role with Nick Clegg? He was press secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg from 2010 to 2015, during the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government.

What did he do after government? He was head of communications for the Iraq Inquiry, then director of corporate affairs at Water UK, founder of the consultancy Ashburn Fleming in 2020, and worked on NHS Test and Trace during Covid.

What books did he write? The Vibe (2017) and Smoke on the Water (2023), both political thrillers.

When did he die? On 20 June 2023, aged 56. He had been diagnosed with cancer in 1993, a diagnosis he had disclosed publicly himself.

Was he married to Vicki Young? Yes. He married BBC political journalist Vicki Young in 2005.

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• Vicki Young: BBC Deputy Political Editor, Politics Live Presenter and Career Explained
• Presslix Journalists & Media

Sources and Further Reading

• Rae Stewart on Wikipedia — Scottish journalist; GMTV Scotland 1995, STV Westminster 2000; press secretary to Nick Clegg 2010–2015; Iraq Inquiry communications; Water UK; Ashburn Fleming; novels; born 19 January 1967, died 20 June 2023.
• Metro, 20 June 2023: obituary and death announcement.
• The Times obituary, 14 September 2023: career and death.
• STV News tribute, 23 June 2023: Westminster career and tributes.
• Holyrood PR: memorial Pitch Perfect Prize, with Vicki Young on the 2024 judging panel.

Note: children, salary, net worth, height and family details beyond the marriage to Vicki Young are intentionally not claimed, because sources conflict or do not reliably publish them. Cancer is reported only as diagnosed in 1993 and disclosed by Stewart himself, as the obituaries state it.