Sebastian Early Payne (born 2 July 1989) is a British journalist who is director of the think tank Onward. He was previously

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

editor of the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

''.

Early life

Payne was born "six weeks early", on 2 July 1989, in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

, England. He attended

St Thomas More Catholic School, Blaydon St Thomas More Catholic School is a Roman Catholic secondary school with academy status in Blaydon, Tyne and Wear, England, providing teaching to 11- to 19-year-olds. It is a well-regarded and over-subscribed school, performing well both reg ...

, before moving to the independent

Dame Allan's School Dame Allan's Schools is a collection of independent day schools in Fenham, in the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It comprises a coeducational junior school, single-sex senior schools and a coeducational sixth form. Founded in 1705 a ...

for sixth form, where he began studying politics. At

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

, he studied Computer Science, but "didn't really enjoy it from about the third week in". He was media editor of the student newspaper '' Palatinate'', and manager of

Purple Radio Purple Radio is Durham University's Official Student Radio Station. Purple broadcasts online 24 hours a day during term time, from October until June each year. History Purple FM (1996 - 2005) Purple Radio was previously known as Purple FM ...

, a student radio station where he also presented a show. During his year-long tenure as manager, Purple Radio received a fine from

PRS for Music PRS for Music Limited (formerly The MCPS-PRS Alliance Limited) is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertakes ...

for not paying any fees for playing music on the station for five years. He was a bassist for a band, The Gatefold, which performed in the Durham area. He ran for president of his

junior common room A common room is a group into which students and the academic body are organised in some universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland—particularly collegiate universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the University of Bristol ...

, but lost by 40 votes. He graduated from the university's

Van Mildert College Van Mildert College (known colloquially as Mildert) is a college of Durham University in England. Founded in 1965, it takes its name from William Van Mildert, Prince-Bishop of Durham from 1826 to 1836 and a leading figure in the University's 1832 ...

in 2010 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

. After graduation, Payne did an internship on the media desk of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', when he contributed to reporting on the manhunt for fugitive Raoul Moat. He obtained a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in investigative journalism from

City, University of London City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...

in 2011.

Career

Payne became a data reporter at ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' in 2011, before leaving the newspaper the following year. He was the online editor of ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' magazine and the deputy editor of its Coffee House blog from 2012 to 2015. He was also managing editor of the magazine. During his time at ''The Spectator'' he spent nine months in a

Laurence Stern fellowship The Stern-Bryan fellowship is an annual summer internship program for British journalists at ''The Washington Post''. The internship was established in honour of ''Post'' journalist, Laurence Stern. A fund for the program is managed by the Nationa ...

at the national desk of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. Payne joined the ''

'' as digital opinion editor at the beginning of 2016. He became the newspaper's political leader writer, before being appointed Whitehall correspondent in March 2019. In the role, he specialised in the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

and

foreign policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

. He wrote a fortnightly political opinion column and presented the weekly ''Payne's Politics'' podcast. He appeared regularly on the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

and

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

. In 2019, he was named by the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' as one of the most influential journalists in London. He spoke that year at the Battle of Ideas festival on the North–South divide of England. In September 2020

Pan Macmillan Pan Books is a publishing imprint (trade name), imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the United Kingdom, British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. Pan Books b ...

announced that after a four-way auction it had secured Payne's book, ''Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour's Lost England'', about the red wall areas that voted Conservative in the 2019 general election. It was published in autumn 2021. Payne was named by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' as a contender to be political editor of

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

following the announcement of

Laura Kuenssberg Laura Juliet Kuenssberg (born 8 August 1976) is a British journalist who currently presents the BBC's flagship Sunday morning politics show. She succeeded Nick Robinson as political editor of BBC News in July 2015, and was the first woman to ...

's departure from the position. In July 2022 Pan Macmillan secured ''The Fall of Boris Johnson'', Payne's book about Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

's downfall, which was published in November 2022. In December 2022 Payne announced that he was leaving the ''Financial Times'' to become director of the think tank Onward.

Personal life

Payne lives in

Crouch End Crouch End is an area of North London, approximately from the City of London in the western half of the borough of Haringey. It is within the Hornsey postal district (N8). It has been described by the BBC as one of "a new breed of urban villag ...

, North London. He married Sophia Gaston, then director of think tank The British Foreign Policy Group and

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

academic fellow, on 20 July 2019. His musical interests include

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talkin ...

and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

, and he also has an interest in photography.

Bibliography

* ''Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour's Lost England'' (Pan Macmillan, 2021) * ''The Fall of Boris Johnson'' (Pan Macmillan, 2022)

References

External links

Sebastian Payne
at the ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Sebastian 1989 births Living people People educated at Dame Allan's School Alumni of Van Mildert College, Durham Alumni of City, University of London British journalists British male journalists 21st-century British journalists British newspaper journalists British political journalists The Daily Telegraph people The Spectator people The Washington Post journalists Financial Times people People from Gateshead Writers from Tyne and Wear