Mandrake did warn Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre in this column that the House of Lords authorities have never cared for members exerting significant influence over a newspaper and that is why – apart from the fact it would be a hugely controversial move – his ennoblement has been put on hold.
Dacre’s influence over the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday is hardly subtle these days. He alone decided it would be a great idea to install Liz Truss as prime minister and ensured the newspapers under his control lauded her and lambasted her rivals daily during the leadership campaign.
“Paul really did believe with the Lords he could have his cake and eat it,” whispers my man at Northcliffe House, the Mail’s Kensington headquarters. “It’s been made abundantly clear to him now that ennoblement will mean him irrevocably and totally severing his links with the Mail group. The trouble is he knows very well that real power in this country lies not in the Palace of Westminster, but in his office.”
