How a North Yorkshire student's podcast interview with Rishi Sunak earned him a spot on BBC Radio 4

George Whyatt, a Year 10 student at Richmond School and Sixth Form College, was invited on to Profile to talk about a podcast he and fellow student George Harris recorded with the Richmond MP.

They interviewed Mr Sunak, who was last week promoted from being Chief Secretary to the Treasury, over 25 minutes in October as part of The George Podcast.

And after being approached by the BBC Mr Whyatt joined other contributors including Katy Balls, Deputy Political Editor at The Spectator, George Parker, Political Editor at the Financial Times and Tory MP Neil Parish on the panel.

Other recent shows have included John Bercow and Baroness Hale, the Yorkshire-born former President of the Supreme Court and another former student at Richmond School.

After they found out about Mr Sunak’s love of Star Wars, the students were thrilled when presenter Mark Coles opened the Profile programme with the words “Out goes Star Trek fan Sajid Javid and in comes another sci- fi geek, Star Wars obsessive Rishi Sunak.”

George Whyatt said: “I had seen Rishi’s appointment was breaking news but I was not expecting the BBC to come to me. I feel privileged to have been approached.”

Jenna Potter, Headteacher at the school, said: “Little did the students know that when they were interviewing Rishi in October, he was someone who, only four months later, would become one of the most influential and powerful people in the country.”