Daisy McAndrew (nee Sampson) joined ITN a few months ago from the BBC, where she had been hosting the Daily Politics Show with Andrew Neil. Before that she spent a couple of years as Charles Kennedy's Press Secretary. Today, Daisy McAndrew wielded the knife. She handed his private office a dossier early this afternoon and within an hour it was announced Kennedy would be making a personal statement. Shortly afterwards 5 Live's John Pienaar reported that 11 LibDem Shadow Cabinet members had signed a letter of no confidence, which in typical LibDem fashion, they wimped out of sending. It seems that Hughes, Oaten and Campbell had all declined to sign it. Three Portillo's in the making? At 6pm Kennedy admitted in a very dignified manner that he had a drinking problem and put in train the process for a leadership election.Lembit Opik has appeared denying that Kennedy had lied about his drinking problem and said he was courageous for admitting to it now. The fact is, of course, that Kennedy wouldn't have said anything had he not been forced into it by Daisy McAndrew.
And of McAndrew herself? At no point during her report did she mention the fact that she used to work for Kennedy. She should have. I hope there aren't too many mirrors for her to look into when she gets home tonight.
I understand that Daisy's bosses at ITN News (as we must now call it) were none too pleased that within a few months of her joining them she announced she was pregnant. No doubt this scoop - which it undoubtedly is - will put her back in their good books. So all's well that ends well. I don't write this lightly as I like Daisy and have always got on well with her.
I'll post some more about the likely runners and riders later when I have had a chance to tap some of my LibDem sources.
5 comments:
The poltical world's worst kept secret is now in the public domain.
Can only be god news for those of us with libdem opponents for our seats
You put an interesting spin on this story.
Others might ask why Daisy would put her new (and somewhat precarious) job at risk by tipping off Charles Kennedy.
It is usual to tell subjects of reports in advance, if only to try and get a comment from them for the report.
I hope she has had a few bad nights sleep recently... her previous close link to the Lib Dems should have meant she didn't front the story - now she is just seen as vindictive and manipulative
Most people knew about this anyway. Daisy has done what she is paid to do and has probably done it in the best way possible (given it's been done through the media). I hope she can sleep at night and look at herself in the mirror, she's doing her job end of story. She has probably done the best thing for Charles Kennedy, his wife and their son. It's clear that leaving this to be dealt with behind closed doors hasn't worked, not for him or for the party.
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