Jonathan has taken a keen interest in politics since the day in November 1989 when the proceedings of the House of Commons were televised for the very first time (and when he was only just out of short trousers!).
A Conservative activist in London during his teenage years, in 1996 he went to study modern languages and linguistics at the University of York, where he was deputy editor of the award-winning student newspaper, Vision, chairman of the University of York Conservative Association and a member of the inaugural national committee of Conservative Future in 1998-99.
For most of the last decade, Jonathan has observed politics professionally, having joined the BBC on graduation as a political analyst based in the corporation’s Westminster newsroom. His research there – focusing on parliamentary matters, the Conservative Party and Northern Ireland affairs – was used by radio and television programmes throughout the BBC and he also worked behind the scenes on every election night programme between 1998 and 2003.
In 2003 he joined The Daily Telegraph as a reporter on the diary column, Spy, later becoming its deputy editor. He latterly wrote his own daily political diary column, Three Line Whip, which sat alongside the blog of the same name on the paper’s website. During his five-year stint at the Telegraph, he also wrote regularly for the news pages, including a number of analytical pieces during the 2005 Conservative leadership election.
Jonathan joined ConservativeHome.com as co-editor in November 2008, making him the first journalist from a national newspaper to leave the mainstream media to work in the blogosphere.
He helped research Dean Godson’s acclaimed biography of David Trimble, Himself Alone, and his own first book – Boris v Ken: How Boris Won London, co-written with Giles Edwards – was published in June 2008.
Since May 2008 he has written a monthly political column for GQ magazine and he also regularly appears on television and radio as a political pundit, commentator and newspaper reviewer. You may have seen or heard him on the BBC News Channel; Sky News; Channel Four News; BBC One's Breakfast; BBC Parliament; Today, The World at One and PM on Radio Four; Radio Five Live; Radio Scotland; Radio Ulster; Nick Ferrari's Breakfast Show on LBC; and German satellite channels Sat 1 and RTL.
Jonathan is also an accomplished after-dinner speaker (and an uncanny mimic) and has addressed Conservative associations, university Conservative Future branches and a number of other groups up and down the country.
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Read Jonathan's CentreRight posts.