John Rentoul (journalist)

John Rentoul
Lecturing at Queen Mary University of London
Born	India
Nationality	British
Education	King's College, Cambridge
Occupation	Journalist

John Rentoul (born 1958) is a British journalist who has been the chief political commentator for The Independent on Sunday since February 2004, and is seen as a "Labour-leaning journalist".

Rentoul was born in India, where his father was a minister of the Church of South India. Educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School, he studied History and English at King's College, Cambridge, and worked on an oil rig before becoming a journalist on Accountancy Age.

Rentoul was a journalist on the New Statesman between January 1983 and May 1988, latterly as Deputy Editor, and a political reporter for BBC's On The Record between 1988 and 1995. He became a political correspondent of The Independent in 1995 and the chief leader writer at The Independent from January 1997 before becoming chief political commentator for The Independent on Sunday in 2004. He has described having a "slavish admiration" for Tony Blair and his biography of Blair has passed through several editions. He is a visiting professor in Contemporary History at Queen Mary, University of London.

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". In 2011, Total Politics said Rentoul "is probably the most high-profile defender of Tony Blair’s record in the British media, in a year when the mere mention of the former PM’s name provoked boos at the Labour Party conference. His column in The Independent on Sunday has become one of the last bastions of pure, unadulterated Blairism". Rentoul was critical of Ed Miliband's leadership of the Labour Party, and regarded Liz Kendall as the best candidate to replace him in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election.

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