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'''Leo McKinstry''' (born 1962) is a British [[journalist]], [[historian]] and [[author]].
==Life and career==
Born in [[Belfast]], [[Northern Ireland]], McKinstry was educated at [[Portora Royal School]], Enniskillen, and [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]], where he graduated with a degree in Historyhistory in 1985, and identified himself as a Trotskyist.<ref>{{Cite webnews|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/books/saving-the-plane-that-won-battle-of-britain-28066753.html|title=Saving the plane that won Battle of Britain|newspaper=Belfasttelegraph.co.uk |via=www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://marketing.harpercollins.co.uk/Contents/Author/Pages/Authors.aspx?objId=3903 |title=Leo McKinstry Biography |publisher=Harper Collins Publishers |date= |accessdate=14 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925202712/http://marketing.harpercollins.co.uk/Contents/Author/Pages/Authors.aspx?objId=3903 |archive-date=25 September 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He writes regularly for several newspapers in the United Kingdom, including the ''[[Daily Mail]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/Columnists/Column/0,5673,368280,00.html|title=Middle of the road protest | Columnists | guardian.co.uk|website=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> ''[[Daily Express]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-the-papers-49629815|title=Is PM 'in retreat' or preparing a 'cunning plan'?|firstpublisher=B.BBC B. C.|last=News|date=9 September 2019|via=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> and ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3634265/In-defence-of-the-white-working-class.html |title=In defence of the white working class |work=The Daily Telegraph |date= 15 November 2006|accessdate=20 October 2011 |location=London}}</ref> He often writes about issues relating to immigration and the [[European Union]], being a strong supporter of [[Brexit]]. His books include a biography of the Victorian Prime Minister, [[Lord Rosebery]].
In the early 1990s, McKinstry was a [[Labour Party UK|Labour]] councillor in Islington and worked as a parliamentary aide to Labour politician [[Harriet Harman]]. Losing his seat on Islington council in 1994, he was working for Labour front bencherfrontbencher [[Doug Henderson (Labour politician)|Doug Henderson]] when he announced the following year, via an article in ''[[The Spectator]]'', that he no longer supported the party.<ref>[{{cite news|url=http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2012/feb/vilified-labour-defector-vents-his-spleen-print-%E2%80%93-17-years-leo-mckinstry-reveals-all-s |title=Vilified Labour defector vents his spleen in print – 17 years on – Leo McKinstry reveals all to Spectator magazine], ''|work=[[Islington Tribune'', ]]|date=3 February 2012}}</ref> Subsequently, he was a regular columnist in both the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Express''.
McKinstry is married and lives in [[Kent]] and [[Provence]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://amheath.com/authors/leo-mckinstry/ |title=Leo McKinstry |publisher=Amheath.com |date= |accessdate=7 January 2019}}</ref>
*''[[Hawker Hurricane|Hurricane]]: Victor of the [[Battle of Britain]]'' (2010), Hodder & Stoughton, {{ISBN|1848543395}}
*''[[Jack Hobbs]]: England's Greatest Cricketer'' (2011), Yellow Jersey Press, {{ISBN|0224083295}}
*''[[Operation Sea Lion]]: How Britain Crushed the German War Machine's Dreams of Invasion in 1940'' (2015), Harry N. Abrams, {{ISBN|9781468312560}}
*''[[Clement Attlee|Attlee]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]]: Allies in War, Adversaries in Peace'' (2020), Atlantic Books, {{ISBN|1848876610}}
*''[[RAF Coastal Command|Cinderella Boys]]: The Forgotten RAF Force that Won the [[Battle of the Atlantic]]'' (2023), John Murray, {{ISBN|1529319366}}
==References==
*[http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/author,269,leo-mckinstry Biography] at The First Post
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130204143416/http://www.amheath.com/profile.php?a=442 Agent biography]
{{authority control}}
[[Category:People educated at Portora Royal School]]
[[Category:British male journalists]]
[[Category:British writers]]
[[Category:Daily Mail journalists]]
[[Category:Journalists from Northern IrelandBelfast]]
[[Category:People from Belfast]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) councillors]]
[[Category:Councillors in the London Borough of Islington]]
[[Category:Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland]]
{{NorthernIreland-journalist-stub}}
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