David Renton (born 1972) is a British barrister, and has represented clients in a number of high-profile cases, especially concerning trade union rights and the protection of free speech.

[3] His PhD was turned into a book Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s, and is an account of the interactions between Oswald Mosley's Union Movement, its opponents in the 43 Group, and the police and courts.

[5] Renton's clients have included the Bank of Ideas and Dave Smith, a construction worker who in 2012 and 2013 sued Carillion (JM) Ltd for blacklisting, in the aftermath of the Consulting Association scandal.

It was during Smith's Tribunal hearing that the information first came into the public domain that construction workers had been spied on by the police or security services.

Renton supported the female complainants against Martin Smith and became a prominent critic of the SWP leadership, publicly criticising their decisions in a series of posts published on his blog, Lives; Running.