Robert Jacob Alexander Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky, FBA (born 25 April 1939) is a British economic historian, author, and crossbench life peer in the House of Lords. He is best known for his award-winning three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes, regarded as the definitive study of the economist’s life and work. Educated at Jesus College, Oxford, he has held academic posts in history and political economy at several universities and is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. Beyond academia, Skidelsky has been influential in British public policy debates, serving as the founding chairman of the Social 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 in Manchuria, from the Chinese government in 1920.[4] Boris had three brothers, one of whom was the British writer and bridge player S. J. "Skid" Simon (1904–1948). In 1919, a factory was built by L. S. Skidelsky in Harbin for obtaining albumin 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 in Tientsin (now Tianjin). They left for Hong Kong just before the Chinese Communists took the city.[2]
Education
From 1953 to 1958, Skidelsky was a boarder at Brighton College. He went on to read history at Jesus College, Oxford. Between 1961 and 1969 he was successively research student, senior student and research fellow at Nuffield 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 the Great Depression.[6]
Academic career
During a two-year research fellowship at the British Academy Skidelsky published English Progressive Schools (1969) and began work on his biography of Oswald Mosley, which was published in 1975. In 1970, he became an associate professor of history in the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns 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 the Polytechnic of North London. In 1978, he was appointed Professor of International Studies at the University 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 at London 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 of Brighton College.[8] He is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick.[9][10]
Skidelsky was a regular monthly columnist for Project Syndicate, an international media organization from 2003-2024.[11]
Political career
Skidelsky has been a member of three political parties. He left the Labour Party to become a founding member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in which he remained until its dissilution in 1990. On 15 July 1991 he was created a life peer as Baron Skidelsky of Tilton in the County of East Sussex[12]. From 1992-2001 he took the Conservative Party whip.[6] Around the time of the announcement of his peerage it was speculated that David Owen, a co-founder of the SDP, had advised the then Prime Minister John 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 by William Hague, then party leader, for publicly opposing NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.[6]
In September 2015 Skidelsky endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election, writing in The 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 the Centre for Global Studies, an economics think tank.[15][16] In a speech, he commented adversely on the role of the Conduct Committee.[17]
Business Career
Non-Executive Director of Stillwell Financial Inc 2001-2003. [18] Non-Executive Director at Janus Capital 2003-2011.[19] Non-Executive Director of the Greater Europe Fund of Wermuth Asset Managemet 2005-2009.[20] Non-executive Director Sistema 2008-2010.[21] Non-Executive Director of Rusnano 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 company Russneft.[22][23][24] From 2022-2025 he was an advior to Mediobanca, on its Scientific Committee. [25]
Russia
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 the Financial 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]
Skidelsky has two sons and a daughter, Edward Skidelsky, a senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Exeter;[33][34] William Skidelsky, a journalist and author of Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession, and Juliet Skidelsky a school teacher.
Selected works
1967: Politicians and the Slump
1969: English Progressive Schools
1975: Oswald Mosley
1977: The End of the Keynesian Era (editor)
1981: God’s Fifth Column: A Biography of William Gerhardie (co-editor, with Michael Holroyd)
↑ Inman, Phillip (11 June 2022). "Sanctions are hitting hard enough to hurt Russia, if not stop it". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2022. 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
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