Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer

Cookies on FT Sites

We use cookies (opens in new window) for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our Sites are used.
Manage cookies
Accept & continue
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
Open side navigation menuOpen search bar
Financial Times
myFT
  • Home
  • World
    Sections
    • World Home
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • Americas
    • Middle East and North Africa
    Most Read
    • England’s lockdown fails to suppress rise in Covid transmissions
    • EU and BioNTech/Pfizer clash over reduced vaccine deliveries
    • China imposes sanctions on Trump officials including Mike Pompeo
    • Biden signals return to normality on first day as president
    • Angela Merkel warns Joe Biden to expect ‘arguments’
  • US
    Sections
    • US Home
    • US Economy
    • US Companies
    • US Politics & Policy
    Most Read
    • QAnon in crisis as day of reckoning fails to materialise
    • Baupost’s Seth Klarman compares investors to ‘frogs in boiling water’
    • China imposes sanctions on Trump officials including Mike Pompeo
    • Biden signals return to normality on first day as president
    • Angela Merkel warns Joe Biden to expect ‘arguments’
  • Companies
    Sections
    • Companies Home
    • Energy
    • Financials
    • Health
    • Industrials
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Retail & Consumer
    • Tech Sector
    • Telecoms
    • Transport
    Most Read
    • Crackdown on Jack Ma’s empire gathers pace despite reappearance
    • Beckhams pay themselves healthy dividend even as losses deepen
    • Cheap antiparasitic could cut chance of Covid-19 deaths by up to 75%
    • BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine found effective against Covid-19 variant
    • Fifa moves to block breakaway ‘super league’ with international player ban
  • Tech
  • Markets
    Sections
    • Markets Home
    • Alphaville
    • Markets Data
    • Capital Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
    • Equities
    • Fund Management
    • Trading
    • Moral Money
    • ETF Hub
    Most Read
    • Baupost’s Seth Klarman compares investors to ‘frogs in boiling water’
    • Crises facing Biden threaten to create vicious cycles
    • US emerges as early winner of shift in derivatives trading from London
    • Higher inflation is coming and it will hit bondholders
    • Time to look again at the financial system’s dangerous faultlines
  • Climate
  • Opinion
    Sections
    • Opinion Home
    • Columnists
    • The FT View
    • The Big Read
    • Lex
    • Obituaries
    • Letters
    Most Read
    • Democratic Unionists are now Irish reunification’s secret weapon
    • Mystery of the UK’s vanishing foreign-born workers
    • Crises facing Biden threaten to create vicious cycles
    • Unequal vaccine access will return to haunt the rich
    • The right answer to Xi Jinping is a one-China policy
  • Work & Careers
    Sections
    • Work & Careers Home
    • Business School Rankings
    • Business Education
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Recruitment
    • Business Books
    • Business Travel
    Most Read
    • Vaccines won’t get us back in the office any time soon
    • When combining a senior job with study — when should I apply for my next role?
    • The pandemic tests a new generation of graduate trainees
    • Disabled workers find an upside in new working practices
    • How acts of leadership kindness make everyone better
  • Life & Arts
    Sections
    • Life & Arts Home
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Food & Drink
    • FT Magazine
    • House & Home
    • Style
    • Travel
    • FT Globetrotter
    Most Read
    • The new codes of White House dressing
    • Millions of people face tax return fines due to Covid, body warns
    • Why does Davos Man get it so wrong?
    • Six films to watch this week
    • The fight for the future of America’s local newspapers
  • How to Spend It
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
MenuSearch
  • Home
  • World
  • US
  • Companies
  • Tech
  • Markets
  • Climate
  • Opinion
  • Work & Careers
  • Life & Arts
  • How to Spend It
Financial Times
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe

Philip Stephens

Director of the editorial board and chief political commentator

Philip Stephens is associate editor of the Financial Times and director of the editorial board. As chief political commentator he writes on global and British affairs.

He joined the Financial Times in 1983 after working as a correspondent for Reuters in Brussels and has been the FT’s economics editor, political editor and editor of the UK edition. He was educated at Wimbledon College and at Oxford university.

He won the David Watt Prize for Outstanding Political Journalism; Political Journalist of the Year by the UK Political Studies Association; and Political Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards.

Email Philip Stephens @philipstephens (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Philip Stephens @philipstephens (link opens in a new browser window)

Add to myFT Digest

Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox

  • Thursday, 21 January, 2021
    Geopolitics
    The right answer to Xi Jinping is a one-China policy

    To counter Beijing’s strategy of divide and rule, the US and its allies need consistent policies

  • Friday, 15 January, 2021
    Life & Arts
    From Suez to Brexit and back again: Britain’s long search for a role

    Britain’s departure from the EU reopens a difficult debate over its place in the world

  • Thursday, 14 January, 2021
    US economy
    Joe Biden needs an America-first foreign policy

    The new president’s most important decisions will be about the domestic economy

  • Thursday, 7 January, 2021
    Geopolitics
    Emmanuel Macron’s France is a post-imperial power in search of a role

    Germany has assumed the position of European leadership it once promised its neighbour

  • Thursday, 31 December, 2020
    Brexit
    Brexit’s second act may break the UK union

    Scottish independence is not inevitable, but the only alternative is a new, federal settlement

  • Thursday, 17 December, 2020
    Brexit
    The UK will now count the cost of Brexit sovereignty

    Boris Johnson’s government is about to exchange real power for a chimera

  • Thursday, 10 December, 2020
    Populism
    Like the financial crisis, Covid is a gift to populists

    Trumpism may yet get a second wind if society’s left-behinds pay the price for the pandemic

  • Thursday, 3 December, 2020
    Chinese politics & policy
    Europe must take sides with the US over China

    Beijing’s great power politics are a bigger threat to the EU than to the US

  • Thursday, 26 November, 2020
    UK foreign policy
    Nostalgia is no substitute for a post-Brexit foreign policy

    The UK has plenty to contribute to global security but first it must be comfortable in the present

  • Promoted Content
  • Thursday, 19 November, 2020
    US foreign policy
    The case for a Biden-Putin thaw

    Warmer relations with Moscow make sense only if the Kremlin is willing to play by the rules

  • Thursday, 12 November, 2020
    US foreign policy
    The ‘special relationship’ has run out of time

    Joe Biden is unlikely to bear a grudge against Boris Johnson, but the UK is losing its relevance

  • Wednesday, 11 November, 2020
    FT Books Essay
    Out of the shadows: Britain’s spy agencies in the modern world

    Two books look at the hard graft of gathering intelligence and our enduring fascination with spookery

  • Thursday, 5 November, 2020
    US presidential election 2020
    The promise and limits of Joe Biden

    A victory for the Democratic candidate would avoid the wreckage of a second Trump term

  • Thursday, 29 October, 2020
    UK politics & policy
    Marcus Rashford has a lesson for politicians everywhere

    England footballer’s campaign to feed poorer children harnesses a powerful demand for fairness

  • Thursday, 22 October, 2020
    US presidential election 2020
    Joe Biden’s promise is of a life beyond Donald Trump

    The Democratic candidate’s prospectus may not be heroic, but it sets a different course for the US

  • Thursday, 8 October, 2020
    Politics
    Democracy faces bigger threats than Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping 

    Western governments must counter autocrat aggression, but saving democracy starts at home

  • Thursday, 1 October, 2020
    Germany
    Germany’s tough choices amid the global disorder

    Some three decades after the Berlin wall fell, history did not end and now the Republic must take sides

  • Thursday, 24 September, 2020
    Donald Trump
    Why autocrats are lining up for Donald Trump

    The US president has put the world’s most powerful democracy on the side of authoritarianism

  • Thursday, 17 September, 2020
    Scottish independence
    Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan will break the UK union

    The insistence that England must decide what Scotland eats is a gift to the independence movement

  • Thursday, 10 September, 2020
    Brexit
    Post-Brexit UK must respect the rule of law

    Boris Johnson’s plan to rewrite EU withdrawal agreement destroys trust and undermines democracy

  • Thursday, 3 September, 2020
    Eastern Mediterranean tensions
    Home truths in the eastern Mediterranean

    Europe can no longer rely on the US to act as referee in the Greek stand-off with Turkey

  • Monday, 31 August, 2020
    ReviewNon-Fiction
    Haldane — a timely reminder of how effective politics can deliver

    John Campbell’s biography of the life and political times of forgotten statesman Richard Haldane is richly informed

  • Thursday, 13 August, 2020
    US presidential election 2020
    An election to decide America’s place in the world

    November’s contest will be as consequential for the world as any since Franklin D Roosevelt

  • Thursday, 6 August, 2020
    UK politics & policy
    How Boris Johnson lost control

    A powerful prime minister means little without a governing purpose

  • Tuesday, 4 August, 2020
    ReviewHistory books
    America in the World — Robert Zoellick’s fine new history

    How pendulum-like swings between interventionist and isolationist impulses have shaped US foreign policy

Previous You are on page 1 Next

Useful links

Support

View Site TipsHelp CentreContact UsAbout UsAccessibilitymyFT TourCareers

Legal & Privacy

Terms & ConditionsPrivacy PolicyCookiesCopyrightSlavery Statement & Policies

Services

FT LiveShare News Tips SecurelyIndividual SubscriptionsGroup SubscriptionsRepublishingContracts & Tenders
Executive Job SearchAdvertise with the FTFollow the FT on TwitterFT TransactSecondary Schools

Tools

PortfolioToday's Newspaper (ePaper)Alerts HubBusiness School Rankings
Enterprise ToolsNews feedNewslettersCurrency Converter
More from the FT Group
Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2021. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.
Financial Times

International Edition

  • Switch to UK Edition
  • Top sections
  • Home
  • World
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • Americas
    • Middle East and North Africa
  • US
    • US Economy
    • US Companies
    • US Politics & Policy
  • Companies
    • Energy
    • Financials
    • Health
    • Industrials
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Retail & Consumer
    • Tech Sector
    • Telecoms
    • Transport
  • Tech
  • Markets
    • Alphaville
    • Markets Data
    • Capital Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
    • Equities
    • Fund Management
    • Trading
    • Moral Money
    • ETF Hub
  • Climate
  • Opinion
    • Columnists
    • The FT View
    • The Big Read
    • Lex
    • Obituaries
    • Letters
  • Work & Careers
    • Business School Rankings
    • Business Education
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Recruitment
    • Business Books
    • Business Travel
  • Life & Arts
    • Arts
    • Books
    • Food & Drink
    • FT Magazine
    • House & Home
    • Style
    • Travel
    • FT Globetrotter
  • Personal Finance
    • Property & Mortgages
    • Investments
    • Pensions
    • Tax
    • Banking & Savings
    • Advice & Comment
    • Next Act
  • How to Spend It
  • Special Reports
  • FT recommends
  • Graphics
  • Lex
  • Alphaville
  • Lunch with the FT
  • FT Globetrotter
  • #techAsia
  • Moral Money
  • FTfm
  • Newsletters
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • News feed
  • myFT
  • Portfolio
  • Today's Newspaper (ePaper)
  • Crossword
  • Our Apps
  • Help Centre
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In