Rachel Riley



Rachel Annabelle Riley MBE (born 11 January 1986) is a British television presenter best known for being a co-presenter on Countdown on Channel 4. She has a degree in mathematics from Oxford University. Riley campaigned against the Labour Party's handling of allegations of antisemitism under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and has spoken on behalf of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Interview, The Observer (12 October 2014)

 * More than other subjects there’s a myth that you have to be an absolute genius to be good at maths and to enjoy it, so I think it’s less accessible for people. Even the word “maths” makes people screw their face up.


 * I see the maths face quite a lot. It’s the blind panic that they have to do maths in front of people. It’s just fear and dread. There’s definitely a maths face – try it on someone.


 * I’m really interested in male and female brains and whether female brains or male brains are better at maths. You sit men and women down and give them a maths test and they will do fairly equally. Then you set up the same test, but with different people, and make them tick a box to say whether they are a man or a woman, and the women do significantly worse in the maths test than they did previously in a group set.


 * When you tell people that you are studying maths at uni, they are like, “Oh …”. Especially a blonde Essex girl.


 * Men are not as scared to lose and they’ve got a lot more time to devote to, not exactly pointless things, but to being good at things like Countdown.

2018–present
There’s nothing kinder nor gentler about it.
 * This culture has developed, with those who’ve created it, doing so in the name of today's incarnation of Labour.
 * Tweet (9 January 2019), as cited in "Rachel Riley in four-letter blast at George Galloway over Labour anti-Semitism row", Evening Standard (9 January 2019)
 * Jeremy Corbyn had promised a kinder, gentler politics in the Labour Party under his leadership in 2015.

People have been brutally murdered, kidnapped and there are people in London dancing. Make no mistake, this is a dangerous and terrifying time for all Jews around the world.
 * Acton, half an hour ago. Popped into a cafe for some baklava with the kids and our Ukrainian friends.
 * I just passed two cars in West London driving with Palestinian flags flying from each window, bouncing up and down in their cars, seemingly celebrating like they were having a party.
 * Social media posts, as cited in "Rachel Riley voices outrage over London 'party' to celebrate terror attack", The Jewish Chronicle (7 October 2023)
 * A major incursions into Israel by Hamas occurred earlier on 7 October in which at least 1,300 Israelis were murdered beginning the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.