AboutArticles by John Rentoul

Opinion polls are important, but we shouldn’t be ruled by them

10 Nov 2019

Every time the opinion polls seem to get it wrong, we journalists say to ourselves that we mustn’t allow our reporting to be so dominated by polls next time....

This is how Johnson’s Brexit offer differs from May’s plan

03 Oct 2019

Jeremy Corbyn’s instant verdict on the government’s Brexit proposal is that “it’s worse than Theresa May’s deal”. This may not be right, but it is probably the easiest way...

Nothing may ever go right for Johnson in No 10

30 Sep 2019

Boris Johnson has been prime minister for 66 days. He needs to stay in 10 Downing Street until 20 November to avoid being the shortest serving prime minister ever...

Cameron’s ‘record’ of failure carries eerie echoes of Blair

20 Sep 2019

David Cameron’s book of memoirs opens ominously, with a foreword in which the former prime minister explains why he has barely spoken publicly about his time as prime minister:...

Cameron failed because he stuck to what he believed in

17 Sep 2019

David Cameron was always an open book. As prime minister he was talkative and straightforward. Many times, I am told, when there was a Downing Street meeting to discuss...

Labour MPs may pay a heavy price for playing cynical politics

09 Sep 2019

B oris Johnson was “blindsided” by Labour’s refusal to support an early election, I am told. If so, he was not the only one. At the start of last...

Johnson’s actions are showing his weakness, and making a no-deal Brexit unlikelier than ever

31 Aug 2019

No one seems to believe the prime minister’s reasons for preventing parliament from sitting for five weeks. He says it is the normal procedure before a Queen’s speech setting...

Here’s how Ken Clarke could be prime minister within months

25 Aug 2019

Kenneth Clarke really could be prime minister in two months’ time. We have hardly begun to work out the weird scenarios that could play out in parliament after it...

What if, horror of horrors, Boris Johnson makes a success of Brexit?

29 Jul 2019

So far, I have said that Boris Johnson is likely to be heading for disaster. He seems unlikely to get a Brexit deal through parliament, and parliament is unlikely...

Johnson’s problem isn’t the Tory leadership race

11 Jun 2019

“They can’t hide Boris away forever,” one MP who supports a rival candidate said to me. Most of the MPs I speak to in Westminster launch into a similar...

John Rentoul

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

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