BBC journalist and presenter Robert Peston has reportedly decided to join ITV.

The public service broadcaster’s economics editor has apparently been lured to switch networks with the promise of a Sunday morning chat show bearing his own name, according to the Guardian.

Robert Peston
(Yui Mok/PA)

His departure would mark the end of a 10-year stint at the BBC – despite public pleas from some of the corporation’s best-known names for Peston to stay.

In a spoof on-air appeal, presenter Jonathan Dimbleby described Peston’s potential departure as the “most serious crisis facing the BBC”, while Huw Edwards, Nicholas Parsons and Eddie Mair also took part in the stunt on BBC Radio 4′s PM programme.

Parsons quipped that Peston’s ability to talk with “clarity and smoothness” made him the perfect candidate for a slot on his show Just A Minute.

In a statement, ITV said: “We have no comment to make at this time on the recruitment for, or the speculation around, our political editor role.”