About Iain

Iain Dale presents the Evening Show on LBC Radio (Monday-Thursday 7pm-10pm). In 2022 he was shortlisted for Audio Presenter of the Year by the Broadcasting Press Guild. He was named Radio Presenter of the Year for 2013 & 2016 at the Arqiva Awards, and was shortlisted for Speech programme of the year at the 2013 Sony Radio Awards. In 2014 he won a Sony Award for ‘Best Interview of the Year’.

He joined LBC in 2010 and presented the Drivetime show for five and a half years, from March 2013 until August 2018. He has presented four LBC General Election Night Shows, two American Presidential Election overnight shows, as well as the stations Scottish and Brexit referendum night shows.

His most recent books are Why Can’t We All Get Along: Shout Less, Listen More (Harper Collins, Hardback, £12.99), The Prime Ministers 1721-2020: Three Hundred Years of Political Leadership (Hodder & Stoughton, Hardback, £25) and The Presidents: 250 Years of American Political Leadership. In October 2022 his next book, On This Day in Politics (Allen & Unwin, Hardback, £20) will be published, followed by Kings & Queens in September 2023.

Iain is a visiting professor of politics and broadcasting at the University of East Anglia, which he graduated from in 1985 with a degree in German and Linguistics.

Iain was a panellist on CNN Talk on CNN International and is a regular contributor to Newsnight, Good Morning Britain and Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show.

Iain co-hosts a weekly podcast with former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith called ‘For the Many’, the ‘Iain Dale Book Club’ podcast, the Iain Dale All Talk podcast and also a podcast of his weekly ‘Cross Question’ political panel show, along with The Presidents & Prime Ministers podcast - all available through GlobalPlayer, iTunes, Google Podcasts and all other major podcast platforms.

Until June 2018 Iain was managing director of Britain’s leading political publisher, Biteback Publishing. He formed the company in 2009 and published more than 600 books including Power Trip by Damian McBride and the bestseller, Call me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron by Michael Ashcroft, as well as The Alastair Campbell Diaries.

Iain is one of Britain’s leading political commentators and bloggers. He is a regular columnist for the Telegraph, Evening Standard and ‘I’ paper. He has been a contributing editor for GQ Magazine, writes for various national newspapers and for seven years penned a weekly diary for the Eastern Daily Press. For five years he wrote a monthly column in the gay lifestyle magazine, Attitude and was a regular presenter of Radio 4’s What the Papers Say. He wrote a weekly diary column for ConservativeHome.com and was the media critics for Reaction.Life. He is a contributing editor to MACE magazine.

He founded Total Politics magazine (sold to Dod’s in December 2012) and was the brains behind Politico’s Bookstore and Politico’s Publishing. He was a presenter of Radio 5 Live’s Sunday Service programme alongside Fi Glover and Charlie Whelan from 2000 to 2004 and presented Planet Politics on Oneword Radio. He is a regular panellist on Radio 4’s Any Questions and has appeared twice on BBC1’s Question Time.

Iain is a former parliamentary researcher and chief of staff to David Davis MP. He was a political lobbyist, financial journalist and is the creator and host of the theatre production A Night With Ann Widdecombe, which toured provincial theatres all around the country. He stood for Parliament at the 2005 general election in North Norfolk, but has now given up active politics.

Iain has written or edited more than fifty books including The NHS: Things That Need to be Said, Memories of Margaret Thatcher, The Big Book of Boris, 500 of the Most Acerbic, Witty & Erudite Things Ever Said About Politics, West Ham: When Football Was Football & Norwich City: When Football Was Football. His latest book, co-edited with Jacqui Smith is Honourable Ladies: Profiles of Women MPs 1918-2019.

Iain grew up near Saffron Walden in Essex but now splits his time between his main home Tunbridge Wells and Norfolk. He is married to John.

He also blogs on politics, current affairs, media and radio at iaindale.com and edits westhamtillidie.com. He can be found on Twitter @iaindale.