AboutArticles by John Rentoul

Oprah Winfrey was not Oprah, she was Orpah

02 Sep 2024

We opined last weekend on the allegation of cronyism in some of the new government’s civil service appointments. “The Tories doth protest too much, methinks,” wrote our commentator. Thanks to...

Starmer and Reeves face big test of their relationship

01 Sep 2024

Most Labour MPs were “OK with it”, I was told, when Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, announced she was cutting the winter fuel payment to pensioners. They accepted the argument, put...

Starmer needs to lighten gloom and tell uplifting tale

30 Aug 2024

It looks as if Keir Starmer realised that he had overdone the doom and gloom in the weekend briefing about the Conservatives leaving the country in “rubble and ruin”. He...

Reeves’s impossible choice: broken tax promise or ‘austerity’

26 Aug 2024

This time last year, Rachel Reeves said she had “no plans” to raise any taxes apart from the small increases, including VAT on school fees, that she had already announced....

First words give grounds for optimism in our new MPs

12 Aug 2024

Of the 335 new MPs elected last month, 139 have made their first speeches in the three weeks that the House of Commons was sitting before the summer recess. I...

Considering he’s a populist, Farage is terribly unpopular

09 Aug 2024

Nigel Farage’s first reaction to the riots was to tell Keir Starmer he was wrong to blame them on the “far right”. It was striking that the leader of Reform...

Reeves is making tough decisions — but they are right ones

04 Aug 2024

Keir Starmer said he was going to have to make tough decisions if he won the election and he has been true to his word. When Rachel Reeves, the new...

Is Starmer’s election honeymoon over already?

22 Jul 2024

The doom-mongers and end-of-honeymooners are all around the new prime minister. It won’t last, they say. You can see the cracks opening up already. I have done a bit of...

Starmer’s ‘monumental sandcastle’ could soon be swept away

15 Jun 2024

If Labour wins with a majority bigger than Tony Blair’s, Keir Starmer will be hailed as a colossus. He will deserve to be. It doesn’t matter how lucky he has...

Accusing political opponents of lying is terrible election tactic

19 May 2024

For a split second, Jeremy Hunt did the right thing on Friday. Invited by a journalist to describe Labour’s attack on his ambition to scrap national insurance a “lie”, he...

John Rentoul

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

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