Burley: Night I warned sex pest I’d punch his lights out

KAY BURLEY has revealed how she once threatened to ‘punch the f***ing lights out’ of a sex pest colleague.

The 58-year-old Sky News presenter says it happened after the man groped her at a party.

She said: ‘I remember a guy, a colleague, stroking his finger down my back at a party, and I turned round and said, “If you do that again, I’ll punch your f***ing lights out”.’ Burley revealed the creepy incident on the podcast Football, Feminism, and Everything In Between, hosted by Alastair Campbell and his comedian daughter Grace.

When asked how much of a feminist she is out of ten, she said: ‘I hope that I’m a strong nine and would aim for a ten.

‘I have seen women who have accepted blatant misogyny in order to further their career, and I have had blokes hit on me and not called it out when I should have done. If they ever touched me, that’s when it went too far.’

Burley (pictured), who grew up in Wigan,

Greater Manchester, added: ‘When I was coming up through journalism I had to accept the way I was treated in misogynistic newsrooms. ‘But now I bang the drum, and if I see inappropriate behaviour towards young women in the newsroom, I will call it out. ‘And I hope that if youngsters are anxious or feel they are being bullied, they feel they can come to me and know that I am in their corner.’

Burley spoke out about feminism as she begins her new Sky breakfast show slot, Kay Burley@Breakfast.

She said she hopes she will take viewers from the likes of Piers Morgan on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, adding: ‘I think Piers has been the bad boy of breakfast television for too long. I am absolutely going to be the bad girl.’

She also told how she is ‘flying the flag’ for older women. ‘I still feel as spritely as a 30-year-old, so I want to keep going,’ said Burley, who revealed she had two facelifts in her 40s.

‘I absolutely love my job. I used to work on the meat counter at Asda, and now I’m broadcasting to potentially 700million people around the world.’