Oh dear. Less than 48 hours after he quit LBC to stand for Tunbridge Wells, Iain Dale has now ruled himself out. In an interview with his former employer this morning, Dale revealed that he had asked for his name to not be included on the candidates’ shortlist after a clip of him disparaging his home town went viral on Twitter. The comments, recorded in 2022, were made on the For the Many podcast which he co-hosts with former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. In the clip Dale said that he ‘did not like living in Tunbridge Wells and would quite happily live somewhere else.’ Naturally this was seized upon by gleeful opponents in Kent…
Speaking to Nick Ferrari today, Dale said that the disclosure made it impossible for him to try to realise his ambition of becoming an MP as it would be thrown back at him in every LibDem leaflet during any election campaign.
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