London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Government picks Tory peer Michael Grade to chair Ofcom

Government picks Tory peer Michael Grade to chair Ofcom

Choice of veteran broadcasting executive appears to bring chaotic recruitment saga to an end
Michael Grade has been chosen as the government’s preferred candidate to oversee the media regulator, Ofcom, ending one of the more controversial and drawn-out government recruitment processes in recent British political history.

The Conservative peer – who has held senior executive positions at the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 – will have to face a pre-appointment hearing in front of MPs but is likely to be approved to take the job, finally drawing the process to a close.

The 79-year-old has made a series of public interventions on media policy since applying for the job, including calling the BBC licence fee a “regressive tax” and criticising the tone of the broadcaster’s political coverage.

While chief executive of Channel 4, he campaigned against its privatisation, but has changed his mind in recent years and spoken out in favour of the proposal.

The three-day-a-week role as chair of the communications regulator – which oversees everything from television content to postal services – comes with a £142,500 salary. Ofcom is also taking on responsibility for regulating social media platforms, such as Facebook and TikTok, a major expansion of its powers.

The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, made the final decision on the appointment in consultation with Downing Street, with Grade edging out his fellow Tory peer and former deputy chairman of the party Stephen Gilbert in the final round of interviews.

On Thursday night, Labour’s culture spokesman, Chris Elmore, described Grade as “a Conservative peer who is completely out of touch with the British public and referred to the BBC’s coverage of the Downing Street parties as ‘gleeful and disrespectful’”.

He added: “With Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine showing the importance of robust, independent journalism and Ofcom poised to be handed more power to govern online platforms, the UK’s reputation as a world-leading regulator is being put at risk by the government appointing another party insider.”

The Liberal Democrats also criticised the planned appointment. Their culture spokesman, Jamie Stone, said: “In the midst of the Ukraine crisis and the past years of pandemic, the chair of Ofcom should be a strong independent voice defending the integrity of our iconic public broadcasters – not a card-carrying Conservative.”

The choice of Grade follows a chaotic recruitment process which took more than two years. The former chair Terry Burns decided to step down in early 2020.

Boris Johnson initially offered the job to the former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre as part of a range of appointments designed to put government-friendly figures in positions of cultural power. This included a failed attempt to appoint Johnson’s former Daily Telegraph boss Charles Moore as chair of the BBC.

Although ministers have the final say on who gets the job, candidates first have to make it through a vetting process involving external interviews. Dacre was deemed unsuitable for the job after he expressed strident views during the interview with the panel. Rather than accept the verdict and appoint a different candidate, the government decided to restart the entire hiring process to give Dacre another chance.

This drawn-out and much-mocked second process struggled to attract a sufficient range of candidates or interviewers, with the civil service fixer Sue Gray – later known for her report on Downing Street parties – ultimately brought in to oversee the hiring.

When it looked as though Dacre would finally triumph, he unexpectedly withdrew from the process at the last minute without telling the government in advance. This left ministers scrambling to find another preferred candidate.

Despite an external professional recruitment firm being paid to find fresh candidates, the final shortlist was dominated by Conservative members of the House of Lords. Asked to declare how many people had actually applied, the civil servant Sarah Healey refused to provide details, telling MPs that the government did not want to “increase speculation on the process” and aimed to “minimise media speculation” about the job.

The recruitment process has left Ofcom with a lack of permanent leadership during the pandemic and exposed embarrassing views about Downing Street’s attitude to the regulator.

After Dacre withdrew he wrote a scathing attack in the Spectator on the supposed enemies of Brexit – including civil servants and the Guardian – who conspired to block him from getting the job.

Dacre said the prime minister had given him the go-ahead to sack the existing Ofcom chief executive, Melanie Dawes, and appoint a fresh figure – potentially triggering some awkward conversations.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×