Sebastian Payne

Last updated

Sebastian Payne
Sebastian Payne, Online Editor of The Spectator (9935644796).jpg
Payne in 2013
Born (1989-07-02) 2 July 1989 (age 35)
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England
Education St Thomas More Catholic School
Dame Allan's School
Alma mater Durham University (BSc)
City, University of London (MA)
Occupations
Years active2011–present
Employer Onward
Political party Conservative
Spouse
Sophia Gaston
​
(m. 2019)​

Sebastian Early Anthony Payne [1] (born 2 July 1989) is a British think tank director and former journalist. He began his career with stints at The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator , before joining the Financial Times in 2016, where he eventually rose to become the paper's Whitehall correspondent. In 2022, he left the paper to become director of the think tank Onward.

Contents

Early life

Payne was born on 2 July 1989, [2] [3] [ non-primary source needed ] in Gateshead, England. He attended St Thomas More Catholic School, Blaydon, and later the private day school Dame Allan's School for sixth form, [4] where he began studying politics. [5] At Durham University, he studied computer science. [6] He was media editor of the student newspaper Palatinate , [1] [5] and manager of Purple Radio, a student radio station where he also presented a show. [1] During his tenure as manager, Purple Radio received a fine from PRS for Music for not paying any fees for playing music on the station for five years. [6] He graduated from the university's Van Mildert College [7] in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science. [8]

After graduation, [6] Payne completed an internship on the media desk of The Guardian . [5] He obtained a Master of Arts in investigative journalism from City, University of London in 2011. [8] [9]

Career

Payne volunteered for Conservative Campaign Headquarters during the 2010 general election campaign.[ citation needed ]

Payne became a data reporter at The Daily Telegraph in 2011, before leaving the paper the following year. [10] He was an online editor of The Spectator magazine [11] and the deputy editor of its Coffee House blog from 2012 to 2015. [12] He was also managing editor of the magazine. [6] During his time at The Spectator he spent nine months in a Laurence Stern fellowship at the national desk of The Washington Post . [13] [6]

Payne joined the Financial Times as digital opinion editor [14] at the beginning of 2016. [5] He became the paper's political leader writer, [14] before being appointed Whitehall correspondent in March 2019. He wrote a fortnightly political opinion column [15] and presented the weekly Payne's Politics podcast. [16]

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. [17]

In November 2022, Pan Macmillan published The Fall of Boris Johnson, Payne's book about Prime Minister Boris Johnson's downfall. [18] [19]

In December 2022, Payne left the Financial Times to become director of the think tank Onward. [20]

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. [21] [22] 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. [23] Payne unsuccessfully ran to be the Conservative candidate in several other seats, including Bromsgrove, [24] Bridlington and the Wolds, [25] Waveney Valley, [26] and Surrey Heath. [27] With the close of nominations for seats on 7 June, Payne failed to be selected for a seat at the 2024 general election. [28]

Personal life

Payne lives in Archway, North London. [29] He married Sophia Gaston on 20 July 2019. Gaston is a London School of Economics visiting fellow and Head of Foreign Policy and UK Resilience at the conservative think tank Policy Exchange. [30] [31] [32]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<i>The Spectator</i> British weekly conservative magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs

The Spectator is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. The Spectator is politically conservative, and its principal subject areas are politics and culture. Alongside columns and features on current affairs, the magazine also contains arts pages on books, music, opera, film, and TV reviews. It had an average circulation of 107,812 as of December 2023, excluding Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Gove</span> Scottish journalist, author, and retired politician (born 1967)

Michael Andrew Gove is a Scottish journalist, author, and retired politician who served in various Cabinet positions under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. Apart from periods as a backbencher from July 2016 to June 2017 and July to October 2022, he served continuously in the Cabinet from 2010 to 2024. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath from 2005 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, Gove twice ran to become Leader of the Conservative Party, in 2016 and 2019, finishing in third place on both occasions. He has been editor of The Spectator since October 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Johnson</span> British journalist

Rachel Sabiha Johnson is a British journalist, television presenter, and author who has appeared frequently on political discussion panels, including The Pledge on Sky News and BBC One's debate programme, Question Time. In January 2018, she participated in the 21st series of Celebrity Big Brother and was evicted second. She was the lead candidate for Change UK for the South West England constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Montgomerie</span> British political activist, blogger, and columnist (born 1970)

Timothy Montgomerie is a British political activist, blogger, and columnist. He is best known as the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and as creator of the ConservativeHome website, which he edited from 2005 until 2013, when he left to join The Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Browne (politician)</span> British journalist, businessman and politician (born 1967)

Anthony Howe Browne is a British politician, former journalist and public affairs executive who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Cambridgeshire from 2019 to 2024. He was appointed the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Transport, responsible for aviation, decarbonisation and the future of transport from November 2023 to July 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Johnson</span> British politician

Caroline Elizabeth Johnson is a British Conservative Party politician and consultant paediatrician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sleaford and North Hykeham since 2016. She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Public Health from September to October 2022. She has been Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care since July 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Johnson</span> Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023.

LGBT+ Conservatives is an organisation for LGBT conservatism in the United Kingdom. It is the official LGBT wing of the Conservative Party. The current advocacy group can trace its roots back to the Conservative Group for Homosexual Equality which was later renamed the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality. The group was eventually disbanded and the new LGBTory group was formed, changing its name in 2016 to LGBT+ Conservatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Hart</span> British politician (born 1963)

Simon Anthony Hart is a British Conservative politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire from 2010 to 2024. He served as the Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from October 2022 to July 2024. He previously served as Secretary of State for Wales in the Johnson government from 2019 to 2022.

Munira Mirza is a British political advisor who served as Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 until she resigned in February 2022. She previously worked under Johnson as Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture when he was Mayor of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Foster (politician)</span> British Conservative politician

Kevin John Foster is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Torbay from 2015 to 2024. He served as Minister of State for Transport from September 2022 until October 2022. Foster served under Home Secretary Priti Patel as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safe and Legal Migration from 2019 until September 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Timothy</span> British politician

Nicholas James Timothy is a British Conservative Party politician and former political adviser, serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk since 2024. He served as Joint Downing Street Chief of Staff, alongside Fiona Hill, to Prime Minister Theresa May, until after the 2017 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Harris (politician)</span> British Conservative Party politician and advisor (born 1990)

Lucy Elizabeth Harris is a British Conservative Party politician and advisor. She was elected as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency in the 2019 European parliamentary election. She held this role until the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU. Prior to her political career, she worked in publishing as a corporate communications executive for The Quarto Group, and later the Greater London Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alicia Kearns</span> British politician (born 1987)

Alicia Alexandra Martha Kearns is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland and Stamford, previously Rutland and Melton, since 2019 and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs since July 2024. She identifies ideologically as a one-nation conservative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Kruger</span> British Conservative politician (born 1974)

Daniel Rayne Kruger is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Wiltshire, previously Devizes, since 2019. He has been Shadow Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence since July 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dehenna Davison</span> British Conservative politician (born 1993)

Dehenna Sheridan Davison is a former British Conservative Party politician and broadcaster. She served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishop Auckland from 2019 to 2024. She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up between September 2022 and September 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Gullis</span> Former British Politician (born 1990)

Jonathan Edward Gullis is a British politician and former teacher who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent North from 2019 to 2024. He was previously appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for School Standards by Liz Truss in September 2022 but was dismissed shortly after Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister in October 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 British cabinet reshuffle</span> First cabinet reshuffle undertaken by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson carried out the first significant reshuffle of his majority government on 13 February 2020. Following the December 2019 general election, there was considerable speculation that Johnson was planning a major reshuffle of the Cabinet, to take place after the United Kingdom's official withdrawal from the European Union on 31 January 2020. There were reports that up to a third of the Cabinet would be dismissed, Whitehall departments abolished and civil servants replaced by policy experts; however, the reshuffle was smaller than expected and no departments were abolished. The anticipated reshuffle was nicknamed "The St Valentine's Day Massacre" in the press, due to its proximity to St Valentine's Day, the name being a reference to the 1929 gangland shooting in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 vote of confidence in the Conservative Party leadership of Boris Johnson</span> 2022 vote of confidence in Boris Johnson

On 6 June 2022, a vote of confidence was held amongst Conservative Party MPs on the prime minister, Boris Johnson's, leadership of their party. Johnson won the vote with the support of 211 Conservative members of Parliament, 58.8% of the total. Out of 359 MPs, 148 (41.2%) voted against him.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Sebastian E. Payne > Personalia". Archived from the original on 7 July 2009. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  2. ↑ Payne, Sebastian (16 November 2011). "How true to life is Channel 4's Fresh Meat?" . The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  3. ↑ Payne, Sebastian [@SebastianEPayne] (2 July 2013). "Happy Birthday @SebastianEPayne" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 5 September 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2022– via Twitter.
  4. ↑ Payne, Sebastian (14 March 2015). "Seb Payne's schooldays". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Dale, Iain (8 October 2021). "Chapter 147 : Sebastian Payne". Iain Dale's Book Club (Podcast). Global. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Currant Affairs Podcast Season 4 - Interview with Sebastian Payne". Purple Radio On Demand (Podcast). Apple Podcasts. 7 April 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  7. ↑ "Alumni". The Mildertian. 14 July 2014. p. 5. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Sebastian Payne". Speakers for Schools. Archived from the original on 6 October 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  9. ↑ "Leading alumni in online and digital". City, University of London. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  10. ↑ "Sebastian Payne". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  11. ↑ "Sebastian Payne". National Press Foundation. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  12. ↑ "Author: Sebastian Payne". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  13. ↑ "Sebastian Payne is The Washington Post's 2014 Stern Fellow". The Washington Post. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  14. 1 2 Jackson, Jasper (29 October 2015). "FT hires Spectator's Sebastian Payne as digital comment editor". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  15. ↑ Amos-Sansam, Nate (11 March 2019). "Sebastian Payne appointed Whitehall correspondent at Financial Times". ResponseSource. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  16. ↑ "Sebastian Payne". Chartwell Speakers. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  17. ↑ Chandler, Mark (16 September 2020). "Pan Mac wins four-publisher fight for Payne". The Bookseller. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  18. ↑ Chandler, Mark (25 July 2022). "Pan Mac scoops inside story of Boris Johnson's downfall by Payne". The Bookseller. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  19. ↑ Payne, Sebastian [@SebastianEPayne] (24 October 2022). "The Fall of Boris Johnson - out November 24" (Tweet). Retrieved 8 December 2022– via Twitter.
  20. ↑ Payne, Sebastian [@SebastianEPayne] (7 December 2022). "after seven fantastic years at the @FinancialTimes, I'm delighted to be appointed director of @ukonward" (Tweet). Retrieved 8 December 2022– via Twitter.
  21. ↑ Atkinson, William (10 June 2023). "Naughton selected in Selby in a "very unusual" contest". Conservative Home. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  22. ↑ "Former Financial Times journalist shortlisted to be Tory election candidate". The National. 2 June 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  23. ↑ Goodman, Paul (31 July 2023). "Nick Timothy and Bradley Thomas are selected to contest West Suffolk and Bromsgove respectively". Conservative Home. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  24. ↑ CP (28 November 2023). "Conservative Party to unseat local candidate, Bradley Thomas, to parachute in Onward director, Seb Payne". Conservative Post. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  25. ↑ "Reading the Rutherglen romp-home runes". POLITICO. 6 October 2023. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  26. ↑ Crick, Michael (7 October 2023). "WAVENEY VALLEY: I'm told Seb Payne..." Twitter.
  27. ↑ Maddox, David (3 June 2024). "Tory chairman's last minute bid for seat as party scrambles to find up to 141 candidates". The Independent. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  28. ↑ "x.com". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  29. ↑ name="Voting location"/https://x.com/SebastianEPayne/status/1808778803818176743?lang=en-GB
  30. ↑ Blanchard, Jack (19 July 2019). "Politico London Playbook, presented by Lloyds Banking Group: I'm a Cabinet minister get me out of here — Our fractured nation — Boris care pledge". POLITICO. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  31. ↑ "Sophia Gaston". London School of Economics. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  32. ↑ "Sophia Gaston". DSEI. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.