Sam Coates (born 22 April 1978) is a British journalist. He has worked for Sky News since 2019 as their Deputy Political Editor.[1]
Coates previously worked as a newspaper journalist for The Times from 2000 until 2019.[2]
Coates joined The Times in 2000 as a graduate trainee, working on the diary, foreign desk, and general reporter.[2] He won the Laurence Stern fellowship in 2005,[5] and worked at The Washington Post during summer 2005.[6] Coates joined The Times'lobby team in 2005 as Chief Political Correspondent, before being promoted to Deputy Political Editor in November 2010. In 2012, Coates spent a year as banking editor of The Times.[7]
During his time working at The Times, he contributed to the 2010 The Times Guide to the House of Commons,[8] and his picture of the 2017 Westminster attack was used on the front cover of the newspaper.[9] His reaction to Boris Johnson ruling himself out in the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election led to Coates featuring in the Daily Mirror and other outlets.[10][11] Coates was said to be "pivotal to The Times' parliamentary coverage" in a 2019 report.[12]
In February 2019, it was announced that Coates would be joining Sky News later that year as deputy political editor, replacing Beth Rigby who was promoted to political editor.[19][20] Coates obtained a leaked document regarding the impact of a no-deal Brexit[21] which featured widely in news outlets in the UK and Ireland.[22][23]
In the build-up to Britain's proposed exit from the European Union on the 31 October 2019, Coates participated in Sky News' #Brexplainer feature,[24] and featured in Sky News' 2019 general election overnight coverage.[25][26]
