Iain Dale Abandons Tory Election Bid Following Backlash To Past Remarks About Constituency
Conservative candidate Iain Dale abandoned his electoral bid Friday following backlash to resurfaced comments made on a podcast in which he said he “never liked” the constituency he was running in, his hometown of Tunbridge Wells.
In the resurfaced clip, from a 2022 episode of the podcast For The Many, Dale told co-host and former Labour MP Jacqui Smith, “I have lived in Tunbridge Wells since 1997, slightly against my will” adding: “I’ve never liked the place, still don’t, and would happily live somewhere else.”
Social media users also circulated other clips of Dale storming off set on Good Morning Britain during a debate and footage of his tussle with an anti-nuclear protester in 2013.
Dale, who announced he’d quit his job as an LBC host to run for election on Tuesday evening, was interviewed 48 hours later on the station Friday to share that he would no longer be running.
Dale told host Nick Ferrari that voters in Tunbridge Wells had messaged him last weekend that rumours were swirling of his potential candidacy and that, although he’d initially thought against it, by Tuesday he’d made the “really difficult decision” to leave LBC and run.
“But as you say, things then took a bit of a turn,” he added.
Ferrari asked: “What’s gone wrong?”
Dale continued: “Well, on Wednesday morning, so literally less than 12 hours after I’d done that little speech on Tuesday evening, I got a text from the local Conservative Party saying that they had had a communication from the Liberal Democrats with this clip from the For the Many podcast from two years ago.”
Explaining the clip to Ferrari on Friday, Dale continued: “Now, I instantly recognised the problems with that. There is a context to it. But nobody’s interested in context or nuance in these situations. You just have that little clip and that would be on every single Lib Dem leaflet that was put out in the election campaign.”
He went on to explain that the clip was part of a “sort of banter” had between him and his co-host about where they lived but that he’d put it in “far too graphic terms.” Still, he added: “I wasn’t willing to suffer death by a thousand cuts.”
Dale said: “Obviously, people can throw that accusation at me that I’m a frit. But I think I’ve recognised the political reality. And I don’t want to do anything that would damage whoever is chosen.”
Ferrari asked: “What have you learned about Ian Dale from this process?”
The guest responded: “I’ve learned that I possibly should… take longer to make an important decision, because this was a really important decision for me. I mean, it was an absolute wrench to do that on Tuesday night and say goodbye [to the LBC job]. And I think I’ve got to take a little bit of time now.”
Ferrari furthered: “I was going to ask, what next for Ian Dale?”
“Well, I think I’ve got to take time to reflect on that, because I’ve made the mistake of making a decision without probably thinking about every possible consequence, so it would be a bit silly to do the same again, wouldn’t it?” Dale replied.
Listen above on LBC.
