Owen Jones | |
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 Jones in 2021 | |
| Born | 8 August 1984 Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England |
| Education | University College, Oxford (BA, MSt) |
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| Political party | Labour Party (1999–2024) |
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| Writing career | |
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Owen Peter Jones (born 1984)[2] is a British newspaper columnist, commentator, journalist, author and political activist.
He writes a column for The Guardian and contributes to the New Statesman, Tribune, and The National[3] and was previously a columnist for The Independent.
He has two weekly web series, The Owen Jones Show and The Owen Jones Podcast.
Jones was born in Sheffield and raised in Stockport, where he attended Bramhall High School and Ridge Danyers Sixth Form College.[4] He read History at University College, Oxford and graduated in 2005.[5]
Before entering journalism, he worked as a trade union lobbyist and a parliamentary researcher for the Labour Party MP John McDonnell.[6][7] At one point he was also hired by the historian Eric Hobsbawm to index and archive his papers.[8]
Jones is a weekly columnist for The Guardian[9] after switching from The Independent in March 2014. His work has appeared in the New Statesman, the Sunday Mirror, Le Monde diplomatique and several publications with lower circulations. He writes from a left-wing perspective.[10][11]
In 2011, Jones published his first book, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class, dissecting cultural stereotypes of the British working-class as boorish and anti-social "chavs". The book was selected by critic Dwight Garner of The New York Times as one of his top 10 non-fiction books of 2011, and reviewed by MP Jon Cruddas.[12][13] In November 2012, Jones was awarded Journalist of the Year at the Stonewall Awards, along with The Times journalist Hugo Rifkind.[14] Jones' second book, The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It, was published in September 2014.[15]
In February 2013, when Jones was awarded the Young Writer of the Year prize at the Political Book Award, he donated half the £3,000 prize money to support the campaign of Lisa Forbes, a Labour parliamentary candidate, and the other half to Disabled People Against Cuts.[16]
In November 2013, he delivered the Royal Television Society's Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture, Totally Shameless: How TV Portrays the Working Class.[17]
On 24 September 2020, Jones published This Land: The Struggle for the Left.[18] Jones was interviewed by Huck about the book.[19] The book received a negative review from British trade unionist Len McCluskey,[20] and was praised by Melissa Benn in the New Statesman: "Owen Jones has managed to produce a whodunnit political page-turner and a surprisingly fair account (given that Jones was a player in the Corbyn circles)".[21]
Jones spoke at a press conference to launch the People's Assembly Against Austerity on 26 March 2013, and regional public meetings in the lead-up to a national meeting at Central Hall Westminster on 22 June 2013.[22]
In 2015, Jones was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University (DUniv) by Staffordshire University in recognition of his campaigning on social inequality.[23] Jones is a republican in the UK sense of the term.[24] He has spoken out about transphobia and LGBTQ rights.[25][26] In 2019, Jones and some friends were attacked outside a London pub in a homophobic attack.[27][28][29] All the perpetrators were convicted.[30]
Jones is a former member of the Labour Party, having held membership of the party since the age of 15 and cancelling his membership in March 2024.[31] In his reasoning for leaving the party, Jones stated that it had become "a hostile environment" for those that support the policies that party leader, Keir Starmer won his leadership on, which Starmer has since rejected, such as scrapping university tuition fees and support of public ownership.[32] Jones also criticised the Labour Party's rejection of a cap on bankers' bonuses and its opposition to a wealth tax, among other issues.[32]
