He had a distinguished 37-year career at the BBC, reporting from Tehran, Iran as the 1979 Revolution took place, becoming a BBC correspondent in Washington, D.C., and Southern Africa (based in Johannesburg), the latter of which involved reporting on the war in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), from 1980 to 1983.
[1] In September 2005, Hayton resigned from BBC News 24 six months into a year's contract, citing differences with co-presenter Kate Silverton.
[2] The Daily Telegraph, without substantiation and quoting an unnamed 'insider', reported that he turned to Silverton during a break and said "I don't like you".
Silverton continued to present on News 24 in the same weekly time slot alongside Simon McCoy.
In retirement, from 2007 onwards Hayton has been the regular host of Head2Head a BrightTALK internet broadcast for Skandia in which he holds court between two financial figures.