Rachel Riley awarded MBE in New Year Honours for work combatting antisemitism

The ‘Countdown’ star has been a vocal campaigner against antisemitism over the years

Rachel Riley has been made an MBE in the New Year Honours list for her efforts in raising Holocaust awareness and combatting antisemitism.

The Countdown star and mathemetician, whose mother is Jewish, has been honoured for her services to Holocaust education as an avid campaigner.

Riley was a vocal critic of Labour’s handling of alleged antisemitism within the party and Jeremy Corbyn’s conduct while leader.

The 36-year-old Oxford University graduate took over from Carol Vorderman as co-host of Channel 4’s Countdown in 2009, after Vorderman stepped down from the role she had held since the show began in 1982.

Riley’s tenure as the resident number cruncher, which began when she was just 22, has seen her work alongside presenters Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer, Anne Robinson, and Colin Murray.

In January 2019, she made a speech at a Westminster reception for the Holocaust Educational Trust addressing the abuse she received on social media as a public figure.

She has also worked with the Centre for Countering Digital Hate to combat online abuse.

In August, Corbyn’s former aide, Laura Murray, lost an appeal against a High Court libel ruling that ordered her to pay £10,000 damages to Riley after a Twitter row.

In November, Riley was awarded £50,000 in damages by a High Court judge after suing a political blogger for libel over an article that alleged she was a “serial abuser” and had bullied a teenager.

Riley sued Mike Sivier after he published an article on his website, Vox Political, in January 2019 with the headline “Serial abuser Rachel Riley to receive ‘extra protection’ – on grounds that she is receiving abuse”.