AboutArticles by John Rentoul

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....

Are the stars aligning for a Boris Johnson premiership?

17 May 2019

When Boris Johnson was asked about the Conservative leadership, he said: “Of course I’m going to go for it.” What he meant, according to one of his leadership campaign team,...

Is Boris Johnson going to fall at the last hurdle — again?

12 May 2019

If there is a Conservative leadership election this summer, Boris Johnson will probably win it. A survey of Tory party members last month had him seeing off all rivals in...

The Conservatives lost hundreds of council seats, but their collapse is only just beginning

04 May 2019

The Conservatives didn’t do as badly in the local elections as they might have done. They lost hundreds of council seats, but that is what unpopular governing parties do. Estimates...

Mea Culpa: Deoxyribonucleic acid on the Banned List

21 Apr 2019

We wrote of “the national DNA” in a comment article about Nigel Farage’s return from the wilderness, saying that it includes “the presumption … of denying extremists parliamentary seats”. Julian...

May has destroyed the Tory party — If she found time to knock on any doors