Michael White

Michael White (born 21 October 1945) is an associate editor and former political editor of The Guardian. White was raised in Wadebridge, Cornwall. He was educated at Bodmin Grammar School. He then studied for a BA (Hons) in History at University College London, he then began his career at the Reading Evening Post (1966–71) and after a spell at the London Evening Standard (1970–71) he moved to The Guardian where he has worked ever since variously as a sub/feature writer (1971–74), diary writer (1974–76), political correspondent and sketchwriter (1976–84) and Washington correspondent (1984–88). He became the newspaper's political editor in 1990, a position he relinquished to Patrick Wintour at the beginning of 2006. In 2003 he was voted Print Journalist of the Year by MPs and Peers in the House Magazine/BBC Parliamentary Awards.

He is a regular commentator on the BBC, introducing newspaper reviews and commenting on everything from Newsnight to Breakfast News, BBC News 24 to Question Time. He has also appeared on BBC Radio 4, recently introducing a programme on political insults, Savaged By A Dead Sheep. He made an early appearance on Have I Got News For You in 1991 though he has not appeared on the programme again.

Despite being a Labour supporter, White has not always had the easiest of relationships with Labour and its leading figures. Alastair Campbell, then-political editor of the Daily Mirror and later press secretary to Tony Blair, was reported to have punched him when he described Robert Maxwell as "Captain Bob, Bob, Bob" after Maxwell's - the Mirror's proprietor - death at sea in 1991. The incident coloured relationships for most of the following decade, although White later admitted having punched Campbell back.