His father – late emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at University College London – was born in Kenya, one of the ten children of a tea planter, and the Rattansi family had originally come there from Chavand, a village in Kathiawar, India.

[citation needed] Rattansi began his career as a columnist for The Guardian[4] before working on Britain's Channel 4 primetime documentary series executive produced by Tariq Ali and Darcus Howe, commissioned by Farukh Dhondy and Waldemar Januszczak.

[citation needed] He has also worked for the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Channel 4, Al Jazeera, CNN International, Press TV and Bloomberg.

[5][4] He was also the first English-language producer at Qatar's Al Jazeera Television Network[6][verify] He contributed twice to the scholarly journal, Critical Quarterly in 2003-4.

[12] Referring to Keir Starmer, Rattansi asked: "Why is it that neo-con, neo-liberal Labour Party members continue to try and use WMDs to push us into war?