Polly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer. She has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a Labour party supporter, and backed Labour in 2019 despite her criticism of Jeremy Corbyn. Toynbee was previously the BBC’s social affairs editor and associate editor for The Independent newspaper. She is vice-president of Humanists UK, having previously served as its president. She was also named Columnist of the Year at the 2007 British Press Awards and is a winner of the Orwell prize for journalism. She became a patron of right to die organization My Death My Decision in 2021. Among other books, she is the author of A Working Life (1973), Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain (2003); Unjust Rewards: Exposing Greed and Inequality in Britain Today (with David Walker, 2008); The Verdict – Did Labour Change Britain? (with David Walker, 2015); An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and other Radicals (2023). Her recent book is The Only Way Is Up: How to Take Britain from Austerity to Prosperity (with David Walker, 2024)
