The Lord Skidelsky | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 15 July 1991 Life Peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Jacob Alexander (1939-04-25)25 April 1939 (age 86) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | None (Crossbench) |
| Other political affiliations | Labour (until 1981) SDP (1981–88) 'Continuing' SDP (1988–90) Conservative (1992–2001) |
| Alma mater | |
| Website | Official website |
Robert Jacob Alexander Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky,FBA (born 25 April 1939) is a British economic historian, author, and crossbench life peer in theHouse of Lords. He is best known for his award-winning three-volume biography ofJohn Maynard Keynes, regarded as the definitive study of the economist’s life and work. Educated atJesus College, Oxford, he has held academic posts in history and political economy at several universities and is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at theUniversity of Warwick. Beyond academia, Skidelsky has been influential in British public policy debates, serving as the founding chairman of theSocial Market Foundation and writing extensively on economics, fiscal policy, and the political implications of technological change.
Skidelsky's parents, Boris Skidelsky and Galia Sapelkin, were British subjects of Russian ancestry,Jewish on his father's side and Christian on his mother's.[1] His father worked for the family firm L. S. Skidelsky,[2] which leased the Mulin coalmine,[3] the largest private coalmine inManchuria, from the Chinese government in 1920.[4] Boris had three brothers, one of whom was the British writer and bridge playerS. J. "Skid" Simon (1904–1948). In 1919, a factory was built by L. S. Skidelsky inHarbin for obtainingalbumin from blood.[5]
When war broke out between Britain and Japan in December 1941, Skidelsky and his parents were interned first in Manchuria then in Japan, and were finally released in exchange for Japanese internees in England. He went back to China with his parents in 1947, living for a little over a year inTientsin (now Tianjin). They left forHong Kong just before theChinese Communists took the city.[2]
From 1953 to 1958, Skidelsky was a boarder atBrighton College. He went on to read history atJesus College, Oxford. Between 1961 and 1969 he was successively research student, senior student and research fellow atNuffield College, Oxford. In 1967 he published his first book,Politicians and the Slump, based on his DPhil dissertation, which explores the ways in which British politicians handled theGreat Depression.[6]
During a two-year research fellowship at theBritish Academy Skidelsky publishedEnglish Progressive Schools (1969) and began work on his biography ofOswald Mosley, which was published in 1975. In 1970, he became an associate professor of history in theSchool of Advanced International Studies atJohns Hopkins University. However, the controversy surrounding the publication of his biography of Mosley, which some critics felt let Mosley off too lightly, led Johns Hopkins to refuse him tenure. Oxford also proved unwilling to give him a permanent post.
From 1976 to 1978, Skidelsky was Professor of History, Philosophy and European Studies at thePolytechnic of North London. In 1978, he was appointed Professor of International Studies at theUniversity of Warwick, where he has since remained, although he joined the Economics Department as Professor of Political Economy in 1990. He has been a professorial fellow at the Global Policy Institute atLondon Metropolitan University, and a Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1994.[6] From 2016 to 2022 he has been a director and trustee of the School of Civic Education.[7] From 1998 to 2017, Skidelsky served as Chairman ofBrighton College.[8] He is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick.[9][10]
Skidelsky was a regular monthly columnist forProject Syndicate, an international media organization from 2003-2024.[11]
Skidelsky has been a member of three political parties. He left theLabour Party to become a founding member of theSocial Democratic Party (SDP), in which he remained until its dissilution in 1990. On 15 July 1991 he was created alife peer as Baron Skidelsky of Tilton in theCounty of East Sussex[12]. From 1992-2001 he took theConservative Party whip.[6] Around the time of the announcement of his peerage it was speculated thatDavid Owen, a co-founder of the SDP, had advised the then Prime MinisterJohn Major for Skidelsky's appointment.[13] He was made an opposition spokesman in the Lords, first for Culture, then on the Treasury (1997–1999), but he was removed byWilliam Hague, then party leader, for publicly opposingNATO's bombing ofYugoslavia in 1999.[6]
In 2001 Skidelsky left the Conservative Party for thecross benches. He was Chairman of theSocial Market Foundation between 1991 and 2001.[6]
In September 2015 Skidelsky endorsedJeremy Corbyn's campaign in theLabour Party leadership election, writing inThe Guardian: "Corbyn should be praised, not castigated, for bringing to public attention these serious issues concerning the role of the state and the best ways to finance its activities. The fact that he is dismissed for doing so illustrates the dangerous complacency of today's political elites. Millions in Europe rightly feel that the current economic order fails to serve their interests. What will they do if their protests are simply ignored?"[14]
On 22 November 2023, following a recommendation put forward two weeks previously, Lord Skidelsky was suspended from the House of Lords for one month after it was found that he had breached the House's Code of Conduct while acting as Chair of theCentre for Global Studies, an economics think tank.[15][16] In a speech, he commented adversely on the role of the Conduct Committee.[17]
Non-Executive Director ofStillwell Financial Inc 2001-2003.[18] Non-Executive Director atJanus Capital 2003-2011.[19] Non-Executive Director of the Greater Europe Fund ofWermuth Asset Managemet 2005-2009.[20] Non-executive DirectorSistema 2008-2010.[21] Non-Executive Director ofRusnano Capital between 2010-2016, senior advisor from 2015-2016. Between 2016 and 2021, Skidelsky was a non-executive director on the board of Russian oil companyRussneft.[22][23][24] From 2022-2025 he was an advior toMediobanca, on its Scientific Committee.[25]
Following Russia's seziure of Crimea, Skidelsky argued that Russia's proposal for a neutral Ukraine and a federal system guaranteeing the minority rights of Russian speakers 'should be seriously and urgently tested'.[26]
On 28 February 2022, he signed a letter to theFinancial Times on the subject of Ukraine, along with David Owen and others, that stated: "NATO governments have rightly said they are willing to address Russia's security concerns, but then say in the same breath that Russia has no legitimate security concerns because NATO is a purely defensive alliance. Whether we like it or not, a NATO that now borders Russia and could in future border even more of Russia is seen by Russia as a security concern."[27][28]
On 17 April 2022, he argued against Finland's joining NATO[29][30] and shortly after against the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.[31] In June 2023 Skidelsky attended a reception held by Russian embassy in London and later explained he wanted to show "respect and affection for the Russian people on their national day, especially in these circumstances".[32]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Skidelsky onJohn Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Freedom, 1937–1946, 28 April 2002.,C-SPAN |
The second volume of Skidelsky's three-volume biography ofJohn Maynard Keynes,The Economist as Saviour, 1920–1937, won theWolfson History Prize in 1992.[6] The third volume,Fighting for Britain, 1937–1946, won theDuff Cooper Prize in 2000, theJames Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 2001, theArthur Ross Book Award for international relations in 2002 and theLionel Gelber Prize for International Relations,[6] it was also shortlisted for theSamuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction writing in 2001.
Skidelsky has two sons and a daughter, Edward Skidelsky, a senior lecturer in philosophy at theUniversity of Exeter;[33][34] William Skidelsky, a journalist and author ofFederer and Me: A Story of Obsession, and Juliet Skidelsky a school teacher.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)Robert Skidelsky, the economist and Labour peer who until last year was a board member of a Russian company, argues against the use of wide-ranging sanctions during the current war in a new pamphlet, Economic Sanctions: A Weapon Out of Control
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Skidelsky | Followed by |
