James Blitz, 43, has been the FT’s political editor since 2002. He was educated at City of London School and St Andrew University, where he gained first class honours in modern history.

After gaining a masters degree in Soviet and Eastern European Studies from St Antony’s College, Oxford in 1985, James Blitz joined the BBC as a news trainee. From 1989 to 1992, he was Moscow correspondent of the Sunday Times. He joined the FT in 1992 as economics reporter and later political correspondent. He was the FT’s Rome bureau chief between 1997 and 2002.

In 2004, James Blitz won the David Watt Prize, awarded annually for outstanding political commentary.He was shortlisted for the political journalist of the year award in the 2004 British Press Awards. He is married with three children. - -

• Email James Blitz