AboutArticles by John Rentoul

Alex Salmond’s new party is too clever by at least half

28 Mar 2021

The first and natural reaction to Alex Salmond launching a new party is that he is a bitter egotist who will set back the cause of independence by splitting...

Starmer to focus now on economy

14 Feb 2021

Keir Starmer has completed stage one. “We have established ourselves as an effective opposition,” he said in an interview this morning. That is not as easy as it looks, as...

Keir Starmer is likely to do well in May’s local elections

07 Feb 2021

For a time, the spoonerism of Keir Starmer’s name, Steer Calmer, seemed to many Labour people a good slogan and a welcome change. But recently, having guided the party out...

The American convention is certainly a sensible one

17 Jan 2021

It would be ironic if the candidate who led the chant of “Lock her up” about his opponent ended up in jail himself. One of the worst features of modern...

What the future holds for politics in 2021

03 Jan 2021

We all have to improvise in these unusual times. That applies to the Peter Mandelson Memorial Dim Sum Supper just as much as to any other venerable institution of the...

Threat of no-deal Brexit has been banished

25 Dec 2020

We have achieved “something that the people of this country instinctively knew was doable but which they were told was impossible”, claimed Boris Johnson when the EU trade deal was...

British politics will be different post-COVID-19

13 Dec 2020

I see the reviews of 2020 have started already; they seem to come earlier each year. We are all Captain Hindsight now. We have been prompted to look back early...

Starmer faces trouble ahead because of internal fight

06 Dec 2020

Keir Starmer had a successful party conference season this year because there was no party conference. He has not given a speech to a live audience of more than a...

Sunak, leader who goes where most don’t

27 Sep 2020

When a politician takes a stand against public opinion it is time to sit up and pay attention. Especially when it is Rishi Sunak, the most popular politician in Britain...

Jo Swinson made a bold but disastrous decision

17 May 2020

Jo Swinson almost got it right. She was bold, taking a risk for the chance of great gain, having decided that, otherwise, the cause was lost. That cause was keeping...

John Rentoul

Chief Political Commentator, The Independent; visiting professor, King's College, London.

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