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Geordie Greig, editor of the Independent and former editor of the Daily Mail, has accused his ex-newspaper of downplaying scandals and the impact of some policies in its coverage of successive Conservative governments.
In a revival of a long-running feud with Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Daily Mail and General Trust, which publishes the Daily Mail, Greig used a prestigious lecture on Thursday to suggest it gave Tory prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss an easy ride after he left in 2021.
“The moment my tenure ended, Johnson could be forgiven for thinking he’d gone to heaven. The paper downplayed the scandals that eventually forced him to resign,” Greig told an audience in London.
In a letter to the Financial Times in 2019, Dacre accused Greig of being “economic with the actualité” in an interview that year in which Greig said the Daily Mail had registered a surge in advertising after he took the helm.
The spat revealed the political divisions in Fleet Street between Dacre, a supporter of Brexit, and Greig, who backed Remain in the 2016 referendum.
Dacre edited the Daily Mail for more than two decades before being succeeded by Greig in 2018. Greig was in post between 2018 and 2021.
Giving the Hugh Cudlipp lecture hosted by the London Press Club, Greig asked whether “parts of the Tory press in Britain exacerbate the problems of the Tory party by losing perspective and being too partisan?”
Citing the Daily Mail’s front page the day after Truss’ “mini Budget”, which read “At Last! A True Tory Budget”, Greig said: “Homeowners, people who had worked and saved hard for their retirement — the very people Conservative newspapers claim to stand for — thrown to the wolves.”
The £45bn in unfunded tax cuts set out by Truss’s government in its fiscal event on September 23 2022 spooked financial markets, triggering a slide sterling and a sharp rise in mortgage rates.
“Not enemies of the people exactly — but perhaps enemies of accurate, prescient journalism?” added Greig, alluding to a Daily Mail front page in 2016 that pictured three High Court judges, who had ruled that Theresa May’s government needed parliament’s approval before it could trigger EU divorce proceedings, above the headline: “Enemies of the People.”
DMGT declined to comment.
Greig said newspapers that traditionally supported the Conservative party, including the Daily Telegraph, had urged people to get behind Truss. “The Conservative party did unite behind her — and now appears to be facing oblivion,” he added.
He defended the “long tradition in British newspapers of taking a political stance, 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.
“Right from the start of my seven years as editor of the MOS [Mail on Sunday] and three years at the Mail I had an excellent relationship with the proprietor Lord Rothermere who generously gave me full sway and full support,” Greig said.
“He was generous, gracious and always allows his editors to edit as they deem fit,” he added.
Greig, who has been editor-in-chief of the digital-only Independent since January 2023, initially supported Johnson in the 2019 general election.
He vowed the Independent would hold a Labour government “to account”, describing an “ominous silence” by the main opposition party on tax and spending plans in this year’s election campaign.
