Geordie Greig, editor of the Independent and former editor of the Daily Mail, has accused his former newspaper of downplaying scandals and the impact of certain policies in its coverage of successive Conservative governments.
In a resumption of a long-running feud with Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail and the General Trust, which publishes the Daily Mail, Greig used a prestigious conference on Thursday to suggest he had given to Conservative Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. an easy ride after leaving in 2021.
By the end of my term, Johnson could be forgiven for thinking he had gone to heaven. The newspaper downplayed the scandals that ultimately forced him to resign, Greig told an audience in London.
In a letter to the Financial Times in 2019, Dacre accused Greig of being economical with news in an interview that year in which Greig said the Daily Mail had seen a surge in advertising after he took the helm.
The row exposed political divisions in Fleet Street between Dacre, a Brexit supporter, and Greig, who supported Remain in the 2016 referendum.
Dacre edited the Daily Mail for more than two decades before being replaced by Greig in 2018. Greig served between 2018 and 2021.
At the Hugh Cudlipp Lecture organised by the London Press Club, Greig asked whether parts of the Conservative press in Britain were exacerbating the problems of the Conservative Party by losing perspective and being too partisan?
Quoting the front page of the Daily Mail the day after Truss's mini-budget, which read At Last! A true Tory budget, Greig said: Homeowners, people who have worked hard and saved for retirement, the very people the Tory papers claim to be defending, are being thrown to the wolves.
The 45 billion unfunded tax cuts announced by the Truss government at its budget event on September 23, 2022 have spooked financial markets, triggering a fall in the pound and a sharp rise in mortgage rates.
Not exactly enemies of the people, but perhaps enemies of accurate and prescient journalism? Greig added, referring to a Daily Mail front page from 2016 that showed three High Court judges ruling that Theresa May’s government needed parliamentary approval before it could trigger divorce proceedings with the EU, under the headline: Enemies of the People.
DMGT declined to comment.
Greig said newspapers which traditionally supported the Conservative party, including the Daily Telegraph, had urged people to support Truss. The Conservative Party united behind her and now appears to be facing oblivion, he added.
He defended the long tradition of British newspapers of taking a political position, supporting one party or another, but added that it was never reasonable to bury sleaze and incompetence.
Despite his criticism of the Mail's coverage, Greig praised Jonathan Harmsworth, Viscount Rothermere, whose family owns the Daily Mail.
From the start of my seven years as editor-in-chief of MOS [Mail on Sunday] and for three years at the Mail I had an excellent relationship with the owner Lord Rothermere who generously gave me all the authority and support he could, said Greig.
He was generous, kind and always allowed his editors to edit as they saw fit, he added.
Greig, who has been editor of the digital-only independent newspaper since January 2023, initially supported Johnson in the 2019 general election.
He promised the Independent would hold the Labour government to account, describing the main opposition party's worrying silence on tax and spending plans during this year's election campaign.
