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. In 1987, he published his book
The Rich Get Richer: The Growth of Inequality in Britain in the 1980s. 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". 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==