A record £18,000 has been raised at a lunch held by the West Midlands branch of the Journalists’ Charity.

BBC Radio 4 Today show presenter Nick Robinson was the guest speaker in front of hundreds of guests at the branch’s lunch, held at Aston Villa Football Club’s Villa Park stadium.

The charity has been staging celebrity lunches in Birmingham since 1993 and they have helped raise more than £500,000 in total.

It raises fund to help journalists who have fallen on hard times.

Nick Robinson speaking to guests at the lunch

Nick’s speech covered a range of stories from his broadcasting career, including recalling some of his earliest experiences which were gained at Birmingham’s legendary Pebble Mill studios.

He also showed a television clip in which a clearly rattled George Bush him short shrift following a question he posed on the Iraq war during a press conference.

Nick told the gathering thatt, despite his many run-ins with politicians from all parties, most were ultimately “genuine people with good intentions who could easily have gone into other professions to line their pockets if they really wished.”