Simon Walters is departing the Daily Mail on amicable terms. His appointment as the Daily Mail’s assistant editor in 2018 came as he followed Geordie Grieg from the Mail on Sunday, where he had been political editor for nineteen years and won press awards galore. He is expected to maintain a close connection with the Mail even as leaves the staff. Simon started his career in 1974 at the Slough Evening Mail, was a parliamentary reporter with the Press Association, political reporter at The Sun and deputy editor of the Sunday Express.
The four times winner of the Political Journalist of the Year Award at the British Press Awards has an unrivalled record for fearless reporting with agenda setting scoops second to none. Guido’s not convinced he’s going to become a freelancer…
After 19 years at the Mail on Sunday Lobby legend Simon Walters is off to their bitterest rival paper, the Daily Mail. The four times Political Journalist of the Year becomes the Assistant Editor (Politics). He will be spending most of his time in Northcliffe House and leaving the Lobby. What does this mean for the Brexit coverage in the paper that has been as staunch as any on the issue? Incoming editor Geordie Grieg might want to move the coverage to a less bombastic tone. If the paper moved to take an anti-Brexit line this would surely create a commercially dangerous cognitive dissonance in the readership…
Judging from the ferocity of her protest about Mail on Sunday political editor Simon Walters’ ‘unbelievable’ question to her about her weight, you’d think Liz Kendall would have thrown him out of her office where the interview took place. Er, no.
At the end of that interview she larked around taking photos of Walters with the Mail on Sunday photographer’s camera. And she gave him a jar of ‘Granny Cool’ orange and lemon with ginger marmalade, saying: ‘I was given this but prefer thick cut.’ Walters was slapping Kendall’s ‘Granny Cool’ on his hot buttered Mother’s Pride on Sunday morning when, prompted by the Beeb’s PC brigade, he heard her fulminate against him on BBC Radio 5. Never mind Simon, she’ll soon be toast herself…
Liz Kendall memorably told the Mail on Sunday’s Simon Walters to “f**k off” when he asked her if she is “about the same weight as the Duchess of Cambridge”. Liz was so outraged that she told John Pienaar:
“I just think it’s unbelievable that in the 21st Century women still get asked such very, very different questions from men. Can you imagine the Mail on Sunday asking the weight of the prime minister, George Osborne or any other leading politician?”
Well, now you mention it…
Here is Walters’ MoS interview with the Chancellor last year:
“it is more intimate matters that we discuss first. It is impossible not to notice his dramatic weight loss. He is a real skinny malink. ‘Am I?’ he says, modestly patting his slim line waist.
‘You reach that point in your mid-40s where suddenly the weight doesn’t drop off and you have to … it’s a hard fact of life. I found myself putting on weight being stuck in here [No 11] and the Treasury. I asked my doctor which diets he thought worked. He recommended the 5:2.’ Is he still on it?
‘No, the 5:2 diet helps you get down the weight – I lost a couple of stone – and once you’re there, you just have to be careful. I just eat less and go running round the park.’”
In fact the men of Westminster get scrutinised just as much as the ladies…
