Peter Oborne | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Oborne at the 2024 Chiswick Book Festival | |
| Born | Peter Alan Oborne (1957-07-11)11 July 1957 (age 68) |
| Education | Sherborne School |
| Alma mater | Christ's College, Cambridge |
| Occupations |
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| Political party | Conservative (until2019)[a] |
Peter Alan Oborne (/ˈoʊbɔːrn/; born 11 July 1957) is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the former chief political commentator ofThe Daily Telegraph, from which he resigned in early 2015.[3] He is author ofThe Rise of Political Lying (2005),The Triumph of the Political Class (2007), andThe Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism (2021), and along with Frances Weaver of the 2011 pamphletGuilty Men. He has also authored a number of books aboutcricket. He writes a political column forDeclassified UK,Double Down News,openDemocracy,Middle East Eye and a diary column for theByline Times.[4]
He sat as a commissioner for the Citizens Commission on Islam, Participation and Public Life.[5] He won the Press Awards Columnist of the Year in 2012 and again in 2016.[6]
Oborne was educated atSherborne School and read history atChrist's College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA[b] degree in 1978. After abandoning work on a doctorate, he joined NM Rothschild's corporate finance division in 1981, and stayed there for three years.[7]
He began working forRobert Maxwell's now closedFinancial Weekly magazine in 1985, being taken on by the editorMihir Bose.[8] In between two spells on theEvening Standard, the second being more extended, Oborne joinedThe Daily Telegraph in 1987 for what turned out to be five months.[7] During his second period on theStandard, he was sent to Westminster in 1992 as a junior political journalist byPaul Dacre, then theStandard's editor.[9] After moving to theExpress titles in 1996, where he was taken on bySue Douglas as a political commentator,[7] he accepted voluntary redundancy in April 2001 at a time when the titles' new proprietor,Richard Desmond, was attempting to reduce losses.[10]
Oborne is the author of a highly critical biography ofTony Blair's former spin doctorAlastair Campbell, published in 1999, and a biography of the cricketerBasil D'Oliveira (whose selection for England to tourSouth Africa in 1968 caused that country's apartheid regime to cancel the tour). Oborne is also a vocal critic of the late Zimbabwean presidentRobert Mugabe, and author of a pamphlet published by theCentre for Policy Studies about the situation inZimbabwe,A moral duty to act there.[11]
As a television journalist, Oborne made three polemical documentaries with filmmakerPaul Yule:Mugabe's Secret Famine (2003),Afghanistan – Here's One We Invaded Earlier (2004), andNot Cricket – The Basil D'Oliveira Conspiracy (2004).[12] When the paperback of Oborne's book on theD'Oliveira affair,Basil D'Oliveira, Cricket and Conspiracy: The Untold Story was published in 2005, Owen Slot wrote in a review inThe Times, that Oborne "sets it up beautifully: one gentle, conservative Cape Town coloured man versus apartheid at its most rabid, the odds stacked heavily against the former".[13]Robin Marlar inThe Sunday Times thought "the positives in this book have it by a mile, the good guys are praised, and the others revealed". The book was written withD'Oliveira's involvement[14] and won theWilliam Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2004.
In an edition of theChannel 4Dispatches programme in November 2004, "The Dirty Race for the White House", broadcast just before the re-election ofGeorge W. Bush, Oborne asserted: "This US presidential election is about using the darkest tools of political persuasion — fear, lies and black propaganda — in order to target an amazingly small but utterly decisive group of largely ignorant voters".[15] The historianAndrew Roberts wrote inThe Times that such claims by Oborne as the country's voters being "ignorant beyond belief" was a "staggeringly snobbish, anti-American generalisation" and that "it can hardly be blamed on the candidates that they engage the electorate in the vernacular in which they are best likely to be understood".[15]
In April 2005, Oborne presented the Channel 4 programme in theElection Unspun series,[16]Why Politicians Can't Tell the Truth,[17] that examined how major political parties in Britain allegedly pursue an agenda designed to appeal only to a narrow band offloating voters expected to play a decisive role in theUK general elections of 2005. In aDispatches broadcast in November 2005,Iraq — The Reckoning, he commented that the2003 invasion was "the greatest foreign policy disaster sinceMunich. And our Government has reacted in precisely the same way: by going into denial. Denial about the role our troops are really playing in Iraq. Denial about the true nature of the emerging Iraqi state. Above all, we're in denial about the fact that the invasion of Iraq, as conceived by President Bush and Tony Blair, has failed."[18]
In April 2006, it was announced that Oborne was taking up a new position at theDaily Mail as a political columnist, while retaining his connection withThe Spectator as a contributing editor. He had beenThe Spectator's political editor since 2001,[7] and was replaced in that role byFraser Nelson ofThe Scotsman.
Oborne's bookThe Triumph of the Political Class was published in 2007.Simon Jenkins, in a review forThe Sunday Times, summarised Oborne's thesis "in his latest diatribe against Britain'singénue ruling class" as "Out have gone mandarins, independent advisers, political parties and ministers with experience of life. In has come a tight network of loyalist apparatchiks, quango-crats, lobbyists and City consultants" in the era ofNew Labour.[19] Jenkins observed: "Amid all this sound and fury, it is sometimes hard to discern Oborne's real complaint from his aloof moralism. Much of what he attacks predates Blair".[19] Oborne wrote some years later: "Blair falls into the tradition of [Robert] Walpole and [David] Lloyd George", who greatly enriched themselves in office, although Blair's "exploitation of the office of prime minister came after he left Downing Street".[20]
In July 2008, Oborne presented anotherDispatches programme made for Channel 4 calledIt Shouldn't Happen to a Muslim.[21] In this film and the accompanying leafletMuslims Under Siege[22] co-written with television journalistJames Jones, it was argued that thedemonisation of Muslims has become widespread in British media and politics. The pamphlet was serialised inThe Independent.[23] In an October 2006Guardian interview with James Silver, Oborne was against the "litany of condemnation" of Muslim women who wear the veil from government ministers and considered it an "anti-Islamic crusade".[7] In his opinion, New Labour had "given up on the Muslim vote after the Iraq war, so it's now bashing Muslims to get back the white working-class vote and the veil row is a very carefully orchestrated political strategy".[7]
Oborne was on theOrwell Prize's Journalism shortlist for 2009.[24]
In collaboration with James Jones, Oborne wrote the pamphlet "The Pro-Israel Lobby in Britain",[25] which outlined the alleged influence enjoyed bypro-Israeli media and political lobbyists in the United Kingdom. The article asserted that while the lobbying efforts of groups such asConservative Friends of Israel (CFI),Labour Friends of Israel, and theBritain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) are within the law, theirfunding is often untraceable, their operations are not transparent, and media seldom declare the influence of junkets arranged by these pro-Israeli entities on the tenor of their writing. Oborne and Jones conclude that changes are needed "because politics in a democracy should never take place behind closed doors. It should be out in the open and there for all to see." On the same issue. Oborne wrote and presented an edition ofDispatches titled "Inside Britain's Israel Lobby",[26] featuring interviews with people mentioned in the pamphlet and commenting on the BBC's refusal[27] to broadcast the 2009DECGaza appeal. In December 2012, he argued that the Conservatives' unwillingness to criticise the Israeli government threatens the prospect of a permanent peace in the region.[28]
In collaboration with ConservativeMember of ParliamentJesse Norman, Oborne produced the pamphletChurchill's Legacy – the Conservative case for theHuman Rights Act in the summer of 2009. Published byLiberty, the pamphlet attempted to show how "the Act is not a charter for socialism but contains the most basic rights from 900 years of British history".[29]
In September 2011, Oborne and Frances Weaver co-authored the pamphletGuilty Men for the Centre for Policy Studies written.[30][31] According to Oborne and Weaver in a covering article, "the pro-Europeans find themselves in the same situation as appeasers in 1940, or communists after the fall of the Berlin Wall".[32] The report sought to identify the politicians, institutions and commentators who the authors felt had tried to take Britain into theEuropean Single Currency. TheFinancial Times, which "has been wrong on every single major economic judgment over the past quarter century", in the covering article is accused of a "vendetta" against Euro-sceptics.[32] In the report, theFT, BBC and CBI are accused of being "villains" and considered the "propaganda arm for the pro-single currency movement".[33] MacShane wrote that the authors' made false claims in the report against theConfederation of British Industry (CBI) and he dismisses the idea that the British media "have been suborned into aiding and abetting a pro-Europe line" because the press is dominated by a right-wing euro-sceptic agenda.[30]
Following the pamphlet's publication, Oborne made frank comments on the BBC programmeNewsnight on 28 September 2011.[34] In the debate about theGreek debt crisis and its effects on theeurozone, he referred to the European Commission spokesmanAmadeu Altafaj Tardio as "that idiot in Brussels" which, after he used the phrase for a third time, resulted in Tardio walking out of the studio.[35][36] (Tardio, spokesman forEuropean Union economic and monetary affairs commissionerOlli Rehn, was speaking from a studio inBrussels.) Oborne was mocked byNewsnight presenterJeremy Paxman for "gratuituous rudeness" after Paxman had himself asked for a response from, "Mr Idiot in Brussels".[37][38]
On 10 May 2012, on the BBC'sQuestion Time programme, Oborne commented following the jailing of aRochdale sex trafficking gang, who had been convicted of rape, sexual activity with children and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children having raped, physically assaulted and sexually groomed girls as young as 12. Oborne said the victims had "accepted the advances" of their attackers and added: "What does it tell us about what's happened to our society that we have 12 year old girls, 13 year old girls, who are happy to give up their affection and their beauty to men in exchange for a packet of crisps?"[39] Some, such as Vicky Allan ofThe Herald, have claimed that this type of rhetoric amounts tovictim blaming, saying that: "there is a prevalent conviction that young girls are somehow asking for whatever they get as soon as they begin to behave in a sexual manner, or choose to involve themselves with men".[40]
Oborne has been critical of the state ofSaudi Arabia–United Kingdom relations as he considers that Saudi Arabia has too much influence over British politicians' decisions due to the value of arms they buy from British-headquartered companies likeBAE Systems. In October 2014, hisDaily Telegraph column criticised the British government for launching an investigation into theMuslim Brotherhood, apparently on the say-so of the Saudi Arabian government[41] and the Arab lobby. On the Arab lobby, he said: "Unlike the Pro-Israel lobby (with which it is, nevertheless, very closely allied) there are few obvious institutional structures or pressure points. The British Arab lobby is inchoate. It is powerfully represented at the heart of the British military and intelligence establishments, while its connections with the oil and defence industries remain profound. Relations with the British monarchy run very deep.[41]" He also called on the British government to end its support for theSaudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[42]
Written with David Morrison, Oborne's bookA Dangerous Delusion: Why the Iranian Nuclear Threat is a Myth (2013) sought to dispel what the authors see as a common misconception of a malign intent behindIran's nuclear power programme, and objects to the current sanctions against Iran and argues against any military intervention.[43]The Times leader writerOliver Kamm disagreed with the authors' notion thatAyatollah Khomeini was "one of the greatest theologians of all time" whose "teaching contained insights which went far deeper than anything the rationalists and materialists of the United States could imagine" suggesting those insights fall somewhat short of the proposals ofThomas Jefferson in theVirginia Statute for Religious Freedom.[44] On apodcast involving the authors,Douglas Murray asserted that Morrison, with the acquiescence of Oborne, made disingenuous claims aboutPresident Ahmadinejad'shistory of Holocaust denial.[45]
Oborne, responding to his critics in an article forThe Spectator's 'Coffee House' blog, complained of the "scale and (in some cases) virulence that I have never encountered before" of his and Morrison's opponents. He rejected Kamm and Murray's claims about his co-author, who "fully accepts" the veracity of claims against Ahmadinejad. Oborne wrote that "not one of our critics have even tried to deal with the central, factual points of our short book: that Iran isn’t in possession of nuclear weapons and isn’t building them".[46]Michael Axworthy thought that "For the most part, Oborne and Morrison are right and their arguments are strong".[43] A review byCon Coughlin forThe Jewish Chronicle speculated that Oborne's "unhappy descent into the world of international fantasy" owed much to his association with Morrison, and accused "the authors" of "alarming ignorance about the rudimentary principles that underpin the current Iranian regime" and reports from intelligence sources and theInternational Atomic Energy Agency.[47]
Oborne had re-joinedThe Daily Telegraph in May 2010 from theMail to write for the newspaper from the following September.[48]
On 17 February 2015, Oborne resigned fromThe Daily Telegraph. In a letter posted to the online news website,openDemocracy, Oborne criticised his former employer for the allegedly unscrupulous relationship between their editorial and commercial arms.[49] Specifically, Oborne outlined how the paper would suppress negative stories and drop investigations into theHSBC bank, a major source of their advertising revenue, which, in his opinion, compromised their journalistic integrity calling it a "form of fraud on its readers".[50][51] He also alleged thatThe Telegraph's coverage of stories relating to British supermarket chainTesco, shipping companyCunard and thepro-democracy protests inHong Kong had been influenced by commercial considerations.[50] He added, "There are other very troubling cases, many of them set out inPrivate Eye, which has been a major source of information forTelegraph journalists wanting to understand what is happening on their paper".[50]
The Telegraph group responded to Oborne's claims in a statement: "We aim to provide all our commercial partners with a range of advertising solutions, but the distinction between advertising and our award-winning editorial operation has always been fundamental to our business. We utterly refute any allegation to the contrary."[3][52]
Michael White wrote of Oborne at the time: "What makes him unusual, however, not just among journalists, is his powerful sense of right and wrong".[53]
In July 2015,BBC Radio 4 broadcast a report by Oborne in which he and producer Anna Meisel investigated the closure a year earlier ofHSBC bank accounts belonging to British Muslim institutions and individuals.[54] He had originally begun his investigation whilst working forThe Daily Telegraph, but the newspaper had refused to publish the resultant article, which had been critical of the bank's decision, triggering his decision to resign.[55]
On 30 June 2015, it was announced that Oborne would rejoin theDaily Mail with a weekly political column starting in the autumn and write a weekly column inMiddle East Eye.[56][57]
During the nomination process for the2016 United States presidential election, Oborne said that, whileHillary Clinton "for me is a warmonger" as "[t]here's never been a war she hasn't supported", the eventual US PresidentDonald Trump "in terms of his foreign policy is actually quite sensible. He doesn't want to get involved."[58] In his opinion, the Russian government underVladimir Putin and several other governments in the world have "been converted into a form of pillage by a ruling family, individual or ruling elite".[59]
Though previously a "strongBrexiter", Oborne wrote an article for the UK-based political websiteopenDemocracy on 7 April 2019, and suggested that theBrexit decision needs to be rethought: "So I argue, as a Brexiteer, that we need to take a long deep breath. We need to swallow our pride, and think again. Maybe it means rethinking the Brexit decision altogether."[60]
In October 2019, Oborne wrote an article about how journalists and the media are being used byDowning Street to get theirfalse news out, saying: "It's chilling. Fromthe Mail,The Times to theBBC andITN, everyone is peddling Downing Street's lies and smears. They're turning their readers into dupes."[61] The article was rejected byThe Daily Mail,The Spectator, andChannel 4'sDispatches, and Oborne published it on openDemocracy. Oborne said: "This article marked the end of my thirty-year-long career as a writer and broadcaster in the mainstream British press and media. I had been a regular presenter on Radio 4'sThe Week in Westminster for more than two decades. It ceased to use me, without explanation. I parted company on reasonably friendly terms with theDaily Mail after our disagreement."[62] In an interview withChannel 4 News, he said that the journalists being used by theUK government includeBBC News'sLaura Kuenssberg andITV News'sRobert Peston.[63]
In 2021, Oborne's bookThe Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism was published bySimon & Schuster. The book examines the measures taken byBoris Johnson and his ministers in order to win the2019 United Kingdom general election and force through Brexit.[64] Reviewing the book forThe Guardian,William Davies wrote that "Oborne is clinical and merciless in his account of Johnson's mendacity, building up his case item by item, footnote by footnote."[65]
In March 2024, Oborne featured in Channel 4’s ‘The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson.’
Oborne describes himself as a "regularAnglican churchgoer",[66] and his wife, Martine, isvicar at St Michael's Sutton Court inChiswick, west London. The couple have five children. Martine Oborne is also a writer and illustrator.[67] He is a friend ofCraig Murray, whom he described as "one of the greatest truth-tellers of our time".[68]
Peter Oborne's grisly outburst plumbed the depths of cheap studio discussions
| Preceded by | William Hill Sports Book of the Year winner 2004 | Succeeded by |
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