The race to find the next Ofcom chair will be “re-run,” the government has revealed – with former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre said to be facing opposition from the online tech giants in his bid to land the job.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has written to the public appointments commissioner to ask for the interviewing process to restart.
Mr Dowden has decided the existing process to find next chair of the media watchdog has been deficient and there is reason to put a new selection panel in place, The Independent understands.
Mr Dacre is thought to be Boris Johnson’s choice for the Ofcom job, but the legendary Fleet Street figure is said to be facing strong opposition from Facebook and Google.
The tech companies would prefer Tory peer Lord Vaizey – the former culture secretary who is also in the running – to be given the role, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.
Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who now leads Facebook’s international PR operation, previously compared the ex-Mail editor to the villain of the Star Wars saga, branding him “Darth Dacre”.
Mr Dacre has been a fierce critic of the Silicon Valley tech firms – previously calling for “monopolistic” online platforms to be broken up.
Ministers are concerned that Mr Dacre had been “marked down” for making clear he would challenge Ofcom’s current executives and bring in major reforms, The Times has reported.
The newspaper claims that the existing interview panel – chaired by a senior civil servant in Mr Dowden’s own department – concluded that Mr Dacre was not suitable for the role after he shared “robust” views during the interview process.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) confirmed that candidates for the Ofcom job will now be interviewed again, following the culture secretary’s intervention.
Facebook’s PR chief Nick Clegg is critic of Paul Dacre
A DCMS spokesman said: “In accordance with the governance code of public appointments, the culture secretary has taken the decision to re-run the competition for Ofcom chair. We have written to the Commissioner of Public Appointments to inform him of this.”
A Facebook spokesman said: “Neither Nick Clegg nor anybody else at Facebook has spoken to the culture secretary about the Ofcom Chair appointment.
“In a recent meeting with DCMS officials, held at their request, Nick simply asked questions about the timing and process and stressed that Facebook hopes to continue its positive working relationship with Ofcom.
“Any suggestion of a lobbying campaign for or against any individual is simply false.”
The Independent has contacted Mr Dacre, Lord Vaizey and Google for comment.
