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AboutArticles by John Rentoul

Conservatives are heading for a long spell in wilderness

21 Jan 2024

Politics can be a simple business. Isaac Levido, who brutally summarised the Conservative message at the last election — “Get Brexit Done” — is now trying to do the same again: “Stick to the Plan”. The clarity and simplicity of the message was evident in Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street news conference

Labour Party’s policies won’t impact climate change

08 Jan 2024

Chris Skidmore had already announced that he was standing down as a Conservative MP at the next general election, because his Kingswood constituency is being abolished. Half of his seat would make up a new constituency called North East Somerset and Hanham, which in normal times

There are ways Sunak can put up an election fight

01 Jan 2024

To add to the cacophony of predictions for the year 2024, I offer the following: Jeremy Hunt will not cut inheritance tax in the Budget on 6 March. He will take Norman Lamont’s advice and cut income tax, with the gains tilted towards those on lower earnings. Lord Lamont, the author of the Budget

The green problem that Labour still needs to tackle

24 Dec 2023

Take your time, Keir and Rachel. The election is still nearly a year away, so there is no need to hurry. After all, you have known that there is a problem with Labour’s plan for green investment for the whole of this year, and you haven’t fixed it, so why rush? The shadow chancellor has pretended to fix

Under attack from three directions, Tories could face meltdown

03 Dec 2023

The slow but inexorable pace of social change sometimes leaves political parties stranded. One hundred years ago on Wednesday, Labour won more seats than the Liberals in the general election, and six weeks later Ramsay MacDonald formed the first Labour government after negotiations in a hung parliament.

‘Taxes will go up under Labour’ is the only way the Conservatives can fight back

26 Nov 2023

Norman Fowler is more of a lesser-sung public servant than an unsung hero. He was the health secretary who persuaded Margaret Thatcher to run a campaign to educate people about Aids.

Rishi Sunak’s killer robots summit was a success

06 Nov 2023

We should proclaim the unsung success of Rishi Sunak’s artificial intelligence summit. It is easy to mock the prime minister’s fanboy interview with Elon Musk, and we can certainly have fun at Sunak’s naivety in saying that the British ought to be ready to give up “the security of a regular pay cheque ... and be

Labour would be nowhere without Rachel Reeves

15 Oct 2023

The party conference season is over, having confirmed the new power in the land. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, is now running the country. Keir Starmer, who had a successful conference, would be nowhere without her. The expectation of a Labour government within a year is

No, Keir Starmer won’t be more radical in government

08 Oct 2023

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has received unhelpful advice from both left and right. From the left, John McDonnell, her predecessor but one, says she will need a huge increase in public spending to “solve the crises in our public services and [raise] the capital investment needed to boost growth, fix our

Is Rishi Sunak trying to lose the election?

24 Sep 2023

One of the most testing thought experiments is to assume that the opinion polls now are not what the election result will be, and to ask: “Higher or lower?” Ever since Labour took the lead in the polls at the end of 2021, when the lockdown parties in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street became known about, my answer to

John Rentoul

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