LBC presenter Iain Dale has announced he will no longer run to be an MP after it was revealed he previously said he “didn’t like living” in the place he was set to stand.
The radio host had previously said he was leaving LBC to run to be a Tory MP although has now dropped out of the contest.
It comes after the Liberal Democrats dug up a podcast in which he said he “did not like living in Tunbridge Wells and would quite happily live somewhere else”.
“I’ve never liked the place. Still don’t, and would happily live somewhere else,” he said.
He said the disclosure of the podcast made it impossible for him to continue running to be an MP as it would be thrown back at him during any campaigning.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, Dale said: “I instantly recognised the problem with that. There is a context to it but nobody is very interested in context or nuance in that clip and it would be on every LibDem leaflet that was put out in the election campaign.”
Asked why he would not “tough it out,” Dale added: “Several people have said I should be doing that.
“I decided on Wednesday evening that I would ask them not to put my name on the shortlist.
“That was a decision I took. I could have gone to the selection meeting tomorrow. I could have done a ra ra ra speech and I could have won.
“But what if they’ve got something else that I’ve said. I wasn’t willing to suffer death by a thousand cuts.”
On looking to the future, he said he had “made the mistake of making a decision without properly thinking about every possible consequence” and that it “would be a bit silly to do the same again”.
