Dyke to Join Kennedy on Campaign Trail

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Former BBC director general Greg Dyke will appear alongside Charles Kennedy on Monday to underline his support for the Liberal Democrats. Mr Dyke, who was sacked in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry, has already come out in support of the Lib Dems. A one-time substantial Labour donor and life-long supporter, Mr Dyke will appear with Mr Kennedy at a press conference in London on the theme of restoring trust in public life. Mr Dyke announced earlier this month he was breaking with Labour and voting Liberal Democrat on May 5.

“I could not vote for a Labour party with Tony Blair as its leader,” he said.
Mr Dyke has been a fierce critic of Mr Blair’s Government since Hutton so his switch of allegiance was not altogether surprising. He fell out with Mr Blair and his chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell after Andrew Gilligan’s report on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in May 2003 claiming the government sexed up the intelligence dossier on Iraq used to justify the war.

The Hutton report into the affair criticised the BBC and cleared the government.
Mr Dyke backed Mr Blair for party leader after the death of John Smith in 1994, raising money for his leadership campaign. He gave New Labour £55,000 over five years in donations. He stopped being a party member after his appointment to the BBC job but continued to support Labour. He said recently he had decided to back the Liberal Democrats not just because of the party’s opposition to the war on Iraq.

Mr Dyke, who made millions from the sale of London Weekend Television, attacked Labour for bringing in student tuition fees and failing to tax higher earners more. He said: “I actually happen to believe that people like me who earn more than £100,000 a year should pay more tax.” And he added: “I think to see kids leaving universities with debts of £20,000 is not the Labour Party I believed in.”

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