Montague's first occupation was as a stockbroker for
County NatWest and then a
Eurobond dealer with
NatWest Capital Markets in London. She then went to work with friend
Nick Wheeler the owner of men's clothing retailer
Charles Tyrwhitt in London, who specialise in mail order men's shirts. Wheeler sacked Montague but the two have remained friends. Montague commenced her journalistic career with
Channel Television in 1991, on short term two-week contracts. She moved back to London as a
Freelancer joining
Reuters in January 1995 and subsequently became business correspondent for
Sky News in January 1996. She has also presented
HARDtalk on BBC News. In December 2008, she hosted BBC World's
Nobel Minds in the library of the Royal Palace,
Stockholm. The 2008 Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, and Literature had a round-table discussion on issues of global concern and their own contributions to the world of knowledge. On 6 November 2010, Montague broke a strike at the BBC called by the
National Union of Journalists (NUJ). She and fellow presenter
Evan Davis arrived at 3:30 am to present the
Today programme, early enough to avoid crossing the picket line. On 15 July 2011, she again broke an NUJ strike by presenting
Today with
Justin Webb. After 18 years, she left Radio 4's flagship current affairs programme in April 2018 to take over the lead on the lunchtime news broadcast
The World at One from
Martha Kearney. She was earning much less than her male colleagues, with
John Humphrys earning more than four times her salary. She described herself as "incandescent with rage" when she found out she was earning less than other presenters. In January 2020 Montague revealed that she had received a £400,000 settlement and an apology from the BBC for her unequal treatment. In 2018, she was criticised for misattributing the
Electoral Commission's findings that the
Vote Leave campaign broke the law in the
2016 referendum, thereby protecting several government ministers from pressure to resign. She repeatedly referred to "these allegations", when they were, in fact, the findings of the statutory body charged with protecting the 2016 referendum and the integrity of UK elections. The Electoral Commission finding and £20,000 fine against
BeLeave and
Darren Grimes were overruled in court in July 2019. The defendant in the court case said "This raises serious questions about its [The Electoral Commission's] conduct both during and after the referendum."
The Guardian reported that "
Vote Leave was fined £61,000, in part for refusing to cooperate with investigators". Montague appeared as a guest on the BBC
Newscast (podcast) on 10 October 2025, to discuss the historic Israel-Gaza
ceasefire agreement brokered by US president,
Donald Trump. On 8th May 2025 for the 80th anniversary of
VE Day, she reported from Guernsey for
The World at One on the effects of the German occupation on the islanders, and how her own Jewish grandfather fled to England just before the Nazi troops arrived. ==Personal life==