John Rentoul

John Rentoul (born 1958) is a British journalist. He is the chief political commentator for ''The Independent''.

Early life

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''. He is related to Sir Gervais Rentoul, the Conservative MP who was the founding chairman of the 1922 Committee.

Career as political journalist

Rentoul was a journalist on the ''New Statesman'' between January 1983 and May 1988, latterly as Deputy Editor, and a political reporter for the BBC's '' On the Record'' between 1988 and 1995. He became a political correspondent of ''The Independent'' in 1995 and that newspaper's chief leader writer from January 1997, before becoming chief political commentator for '' The Independent on Sunday'' in 2004. His biography of Tony Blair has passed through several editions. He was visiting professor at Queen Mary, University of London, until 2015, and is now visiting professor at King's College, London.

Fellow journalist Martin Bright wrote in 2009 that 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 that 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".

In November 2015, Rentoul issued a public apology for tweeting that "Jeremy Corbyn might say that France had brought the Paris attacks on itself". The journalist acknowledged it was a "stupid and offensive" thing to say.

Rentoul was critical of Ed Miliband's leadership of the Labour Party, and voted for Boris Johnson in the 2008 and 2012 London Mayoral elections.

In August 2021, Rentoul tweeted a public apology to Labour MP Jon Trickett. Rentoul had claimed that the MP's use of the slogan "Kill the Bill" implied support for the murder of police officers. In his apology, Rentoul acknowledged the slogan relates to opposition to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and stated: "I accept that my tweet was wrong and I sincerely apologise for the distress and upset that my tweet has caused Mr Trickett."

Notes

External links

'One man's war on clichés (does what it says on the tin)'
John Rentoul, ''The Independent'', 14 June 2001
* John Rentoul tells Ethos hi
top public service innovators
Ethos June 2012

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rentoul, John
1958 births
Living people
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
British bloggers
British male journalists
I (newspaper) journalists
The Independent people
British newspaper journalists
Male bloggers