Iain Dale: radio presenter withdraws General Election bid to be Tunbridge Wells MP - will he be back on LBC?

Dale announced on live on LBC on his Tuesday evening show (May 28) that he was quitting the radio station after 14 years to pursue his “ambition” of becoming an MP, putting his hat into the ring for the Tory candidacy in his home town of Tunbridge Wells. General election broadcasting rules from Ofcom prevent any candidate from hosting or presenting show if they are running in the election.

However, hours after his announcement, comments he made on the 2020 podcast For The Many about Tunbridge Wells resurfaced. In the episode he said: “I’ve lived in Tunbridge Wells since 1997, slightly against my will, in that my partner comes from Tunbridge Wells… I’ve never liked the place, still don’t and would happily live somewhere else.”

Following the comments being posted, Dale has now confirmed that he will not be running as a candidate for the constituency. In an interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari on Friday morning (May 31), he said: “Well, on Wednesday morning, so literally less than 12 hours after I'd done that little speech on Tuesday evening, I got a text sent 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, in which I had said, and of course, I hadn't remembered this at all, in which I had said that I didn't like living in Tunbridge Wells, and I'd quite happily live somewhere else. Now, I instantly recognised the problems with that.

“There is a context to it, but nobody is 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 added that he had spoken to friends, MPs and his local Conservative party group before taking the decision to withdraw. Dale said: “I decided on Wednesday evening about 5.30pm, that I would ask them not to put my name on the shortlist. Now, I don't know whether they would have done anyway. But that was a decision that I took.”

The development means that the veteran political presenter may well make a return to LBC, but remained vague when pressed by Ferrari on what is next for him. Dale said: “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.”

A spokesman for LBC declined to comment on whether Dale would return, merely directing NationalWorld to what the presenter had said in his interview with Ferrari. Dale is known to listeners for his evening shows in the Global radio station, as well as heading up the LBC’s coverage of General Election nights in recent years, as well as other major event such as the Brexit and Scottish Independence referendums. He joined the station in 2010 and spent 14 years there before leaving his role on Tuesday.