View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
September 29, 2005updated 22 Nov 2022 4:58pm

Ashcroft book accuses Times

By Press Gazette

Tory grandee Michael Ashcroft has written an accusatory book against
The Times and the Labour Government, which he believes ran a damaging
campaign against him in 1999 to get him removed as Conservative
treasurer.

Dirty Politics, Dirty Times – my fight with Wapping
and New Labour, out next month, outlines his fight against both the
newspaper and the Government to rebut what he says was their “sinister
and undemocratic purpose”.

Ashcroft is particularly scornful of
The Times’ then editor, Peter Stothard, and the alleged links between
its then deputy political editor Tom Baldwin and Labour spinmeister
Alastair Campbell and Andrew Hood, a special adviser to the Foreign
Office.

The paper, he claims, ran a “get Ashcroft” campaign about the amount of cash he was donating to the Tories.

It also ran articles implying he was involved in corruption and drugrunning in Belize, where he was a former UN ambassador.

Dirty Politics, Dirty Times is published on 10 October by MAA Publishing at £20

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network