John Rentoul is a British journalist, who is the chief political commentator for the Independent on Sunday.[1]
He has been in this position since February 2004, having previously been chief political commentator at the Independent since January 1997. Before that, he had been political correspondent for the same paper since 1995, and Deputy Editor of the New Statesman between January 1983 and May 1988. He was also a political reporter for BBC's "On The Record" between 1988 and 1995. He has become known as an "ultra-Blairite",[2] both by himself[3] and others, and has described having "slavish admiration" for Tony Blair.[4] He is also a visiting fellow in Contemporary History at Queen Mary, University of London.[5] His biography of Tony Blair has passed through several editions.
Fellow journalist Martin Bright has said Rentoul "remains one of the most incisive political columnists writing today, even though he has lost his access to the highest levels of power".[6]
He also maintains a daily blog on blogs.independent.co.uk.[7] His blog has running features including "Questions To Which The Answer Is 'No'", an idea originated by Oliver Kamm.
Rentoul is related to 1920s Conservative MP, Sir Gervais Rentoul.[8]
He was born in India in 1958, where his father was a minister of the Church of South India. He studied History and English at King's College, Cambridge. He worked on an oil rig before becoming a journalist on Accountancy Age.[9] Rentoul is a member of the Labour Party, but even though he has been critical of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition, he has been supportive of elements in the Coalition he identifies as Blairite or centrist. He is a great critic of Ed Miliband and has repeatedly called for him to resign from his position.