AboutArticles by John Rentoul

Nothing may ever go right for Johnson in No 10

30 Sep 2019

Boris Johnson has been prime minister for 66 days. He needs to stay in 10 Downing Street until 20 November to avoid being the shortest serving prime minister ever (George...

Cameron’s ‘record’ of failure carries eerie echoes of Blair

20 Sep 2019

David Cameron’s book of memoirs opens ominously, with a foreword in which the former prime minister explains why he has barely spoken publicly about his time as prime minister: “The...

Cameron failed because he stuck to what he believed in

17 Sep 2019

David Cameron was always an open book. As prime minister he was talkative and straightforward. Many times, I am told, when there was a Downing Street meeting to discuss a...

Labour MPs may pay a heavy price for playing cynical politics

09 Sep 2019

Boris Johnson was “blindsided” by Labour’s refusal to support an early election, I am told. If so, he was not the only one. At the start of last week, Jeremy...

Johnson’s actions are showing his weakness, and making a no-deal Brexit unlikelier than ever

31 Aug 2019

No one seems to believe the prime minister’s reasons for preventing parliament from sitting for five weeks. He says it is the normal procedure before a Queen’s speech setting out...

Here’s how Ken Clarke could be prime minister within months

25 Aug 2019

Kenneth Clarke really could be prime minister in two months’ time. We have hardly begun to work out the weird scenarios that could play out in parliament after it reconvenes...

What if, horror of horrors, Boris Johnson makes a success of Brexit?

29 Jul 2019

So far, I have said that Boris Johnson is likely to be heading for disaster. He seems unlikely to get a Brexit deal through parliament, and parliament is unlikely to...

Johnson’s problem isn’t the Tory leadership race

11 Jun 2019

“They can’t hide Boris away forever,” one MP who supports a rival candidate said to me. Most of the MPs I speak to in Westminster launch into a similar conversation...

What does Donald Trump’s visit mean for Brexit?

04 Jun 2019

This will come as a disappointment to the US president, but his views won’t affect British politics much. Donald Trump’s endorsement of Boris Johnson won’t change the outcome of the...

The Lib Dem surge is real enough, but Labour can claw it back — it’s the Tories who are in real trouble

01 Jun 2019

The Brexit Party was bound to do well in the European elections last week, and it was always likely to overtake the Conservatives in opinion polls for a general election....

John Rentoul

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

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