Rod Liddle obituary: The Yorkshire-raised journalist who courted controversy throughout his career

The journalist and broadcaster Rod Liddle, who has died at 66, was a former editor of the Today programme on Radio 4 and high-profile columnist on the Sunday Times and The Spectator.

He was no stranger to controversy over the course of his career and was the first journalist to have an online blog censured by the press watchdog.

In 2010, a complaint was upheld by the Press Complaints Commission after Liddle claimed on the Spectator website that the “overwhelming majority” of violent crime in London was carried out by young Afro-Caribbean men.

Earlier, while he was at the BBC, he hired Andrew Gilligan, the journalist whose 2003 report claimed the UK government “sexed up” its dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

Liddle left the Corporation before Gilligan’s controversial report was broadcast.

He was subsequently a vocal critic of Lord Hutton’s report into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly, which cleared the Government of exaggerating the case for war in Iraq.

Liddle also made headlines for his colourful private life, when he left his partner of 11 years, Rachel Royce, with whom he had two children, for his 23-year-old mistress.

The estranged couple waged a public war of words over his affair with Alicia Munckton, a former receptionist at the Spectator magazine.

Liddle went on to present a programme about infidelity, arguing that men are genetically pre-programmed to be unfaithful.

He sparked multiple accusations of misogyny and racism with his columns in The Spectator.

The magazine was prosecuted in 2012 for breaching a court order over an article written by Liddle during the trial of Stephen Lawrence’s killers. The article claimed the two defendants would not get a fair trial.

In 2019, Liddle used his column to suggest planning elections for a time when Muslims cannot vote.

He used the same column to apparently mock Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who spoke out about a previous abusive relationship she had while discussing domestic abuse legislation.

Roderick Edwin Liddle was born in April 1960 in Sidcup, Kent.

Aged eight he moved to Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, and was educated at Laurence Jackson School and Prior Pursglove Sixth Form College in nearby Guisborough.

He began his journalism career with the South Wales Echo in Cardiff, where he was a general news reporter and rock and pop writer.

He then attended the London School of Economics as a mature student, after which he returned to journalism as a trainee producer by the BBC.

He is survived by Alicia, whom he married in 2008, and his three children.