Payne volunteered for
Conservative Campaign Headquarters during the
2010 general election campaign. Payne became a data reporter at
The Daily Telegraph in 2011, before leaving the paper the following year. He was an online editor of
The Spectator magazine and the deputy editor of its Coffee House blog from 2012 to 2015. He was also managing editor of the magazine. at the beginning of 2016. and presented the weekly ''Payne's Politics'' podcast. In 2021,
Pan Macmillan published Payne's book, ''Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour's Lost England'', about the
red wall areas that voted for the
Conservative Party at the
2019 general election. In November 2022, Pan Macmillan published
The Fall of Boris Johnson, Payne's book about Prime Minister
Boris Johnson's downfall. In December 2022, Payne left the
Financial Times to become director of the
think tank Onward. In 2023, Payne applied to be the Conservative
prospective parliamentary candidate for the
2023 Selby and Ainsty by-election and was shortlisted but not selected. Later that year, he applied to be the party's candidate in
West Suffolk for the
2024 general election, but was defeated by
Nick Timothy. Payne unsuccessfully ran to be the Conservative candidate in several other seats, including
Bromsgrove,
Bridlington and the Wolds,
Waveney Valley, and
Surrey Heath. With the close of nominations for seats on 7 June, Payne failed to be selected for a seat at the
2024 general election. == Personal life ==