Tory Candidate Iain Dale’s 2013 Assault On Protester Goes Viral Following Election Announcement
Footage of LBC host Iain Dale’s 2013 assault on a protester in Brighton is going viral online following his announcement that he will quit the station to run as a Conservative candidate in the upcoming general election.
On Wednesday evening, Dale revealed his decision to listeners live on air, outlining his aim to secure candidacy for Tunbridge Wells, a seat held by Conservative MP Greg Clark but who, along with a growing list of more than 76 Tory MPs, is stepping down.
Despite a previous unsuccessful bid for parliament for the Conservatives in North Norfolk in 2005, after losing to a Liberal Democrat, Dale said he was now ready to bring “trust and honesty” back to politics.
Since his announcement, however, clips of Dale’s less savoury behaviour have gone viral, including storming off the set of Good Morning Britain and his assault of a protester live on air.
Like a scene from BBC political satire The Thick Of It, the 2013 incident occurred during a live television interview on the seafront and was captured by journalists with ITV’s Daybreak. The media were there to cover ex-Labour spin doctor Damian McBride arrival in the town, where the Labour Party conference was underway. His interview continued in the foreground as Dale wrestled with anti-nuclear protester Stuart Holmes.
Dale later received a police caution, admitting common assault but published a blog on the incident.
In a further blog, Dale apologised for his “idiotic” actions and for his initial post, which he said was “full of absurd bravado.”
He wrote: “I want to apologise and say sorry to Stuart Holmes, who is a passionate campaigner and well-known to everyone who attends party conferences. He was perfectly entitled to do as he did on Tuesday in trying to get attention for his causes.”
In his defence, the protester, Holmes, said: “I was not ruining the interview, I was just in the background. Then this giant of a guy turned up and grabbed hold of me. I struggled free and in the process, we ended up on the floor.”
