BBC presenter Amol Rajan said he is considering re-locating his family to India because of the ‘big problems’ England faces.
The broadcaster, who was born in Calcutta, said he was ‘very worried’ about ‘my country’ – England – because it is no longer making history.
Mr Rajan, 42, said India was ‘exciting and energetic in a way that Britain doesn’t always feel’ and planned to take his children there when they are old enough so they can decide for themselves where they want to live.
The University Challenge host has four children with academic Charlotte Faircloth, whom he married in 2013.
Mr Rajan is also a host of Radio 4’s Today programme, a role he will leave in September to start his own company and ‘jump into the great digital Narnia of the creator economy’.
He told Gyles Brandreth‘s Rosebud podcast: ‘I can’t tell you how much I love my country, by which I mean England, but I’m very worried about it.
‘I think we’ve got some big, big problems that need addressing, and one of the things is whether this is the best place for my four kids to grow up.
‘My answer is that it is. But I would say specifically that I’m not sure whether it’s still a place where history is being made.
University Challenge host Amol Rajan has said he is considering re-locating his family to India because of the ‘big problems’ England faces
‘In the 1960s and 70s England is where history was being made.
‘It had the extraordinary cultural effusion, the demographic dividend of the baby boomer years, relative peace.’
The former Independent editor continued: ‘I’ve spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley, I wouldn’t want to live there, spent a lot of time on the East Coast of America, I’ve chosen not to live there, spent a lot of time in continental Europe, Singapore, Poland’s going through an economic miracle.
‘But India is definitely somewhere where history is being made.
‘India is the young country, 1.4billion people, it adds 1million people to the workforce every single month.
‘It’s extraordinarily exciting and energetic in a way that Britain, at the moment, doesn’t always feel.
‘I’d like [my children] to experience [India] and then make up their own mind. I want it to be their decision.
‘My youngest is two and when she’s a bit older and the long haul flights are a bit less perilous I would like to go to India frequently and invite my children to fall in love with the civilisation that’s in their blood.’
Mr Rajan added that England was a ‘wonderful country, a peaceful country’ which had ‘actually quite low crime’.
After his announcement in January that he would leave the BBC’s flagship Today programme, Mr Rajan told Mr Brandreth he was ‘rather down on the practice of journalism, if not the idea’.
He said he had ‘had a really good time’ in his career and ‘been paid really well’ but had ‘made a habit of joining industries 20 years late’.
The Today programme has suffered from falling listener numbers in recent years, with 5.4million tuning in as of October, a decline of 363,000 on the third quarter of 2024.
The former Independent editor, pictured with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch for his series Amol Rajan Interviews, will leave Radio 4’s Today programme in September
Mr Rajan said he ‘felt awkward complaining’ about his time on the programme, but revealed he tended to present the bulletin, which airs from 6am to 9am on weekdays and from 7am on Saturdays, ‘having not really been to bed’.
The broadcaster said it was the reality of having a young family and stressed it was ‘still a privilege’ to be part of the rotating presenter lineup, which also includes Americast’s Justin Webb, former BBC political editor Nick Robinson, previous Woman’s Hour host Emma Barnett and ex-News at One anchor Anna Foster.
Mr Rajan said he had taken ‘four or five hundred’ painkillers in recent years, partly because of his lack of sleep.
Last year, before an interview with a member of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), he said he took two codeine to deal with a headache.
‘I was interviewing a member of the IDF – he’s on the front foot, this chap, in defence of Israel’s actions in Gaza,’ Mr Rajan said.
‘I remember, he was in the 8.10am slot, which is the premier slot, and 25 minutes before I felt like I had a woodpecker in my head and I took two codeine, that’s sub-optimal.
‘And I’ve probably taken four or five hundred painkillers over the last few years. I want to get away from that and I want to be fit and healthy and I want to sleep.’