Dins collection
Civil service
, Issue 1655
"Dins" served briefly as editor of the Sun between June 2013 and September 2015, during which he ran an aggressively hostile campaign against "Red Ed" Miliband's Labour party before giving a heartfelt front-page endorsement to David Cameron's Tories in the 2015 election.
Simultaneously he was missing no opportunity to denigrate the then director of public prosecutions, one Keir Starmer, for having the temerity to press criminal charges against journalists News UK management had grassed up following the phone-hacking scandal (Eyes passim).
The paper's editorial column ranted that Starmer had "hugely damaged the reputation of all journalism" and that he "blew thousands of taxpayers' cash criss-crossing the globe on jollies. Starmer plans to be a Labour MP. It seems champagne socialism is back."
In the autumn of 2015, Dinsmore was bumped up into a corporate job to do the more boring bits of management that the returning Rebekah Brooks didn't fancy, and has ever since been a part of the decision-making process at the top of the company that has prevented the Sun giving anything but the most lukewarm eve-of-poll endorsements to Labour under Starmer last year, and treating his government with animosity ever since.
Yet he has now beaten Blairite veteran and experienced PR man Tim Allan to a post in which he will "transform how the government communicates with the public".
Off message
The job was intended to shift government efforts towards broadcast and digital outlets and away from old-fashioned, er, newspapers, as well as massively reducing Whitehall's 8,000-strong army of comms officers. There at least Dinsmore does have some experience, having overseen multiple redundancy rounds and swingeing cuts as the Sun staggered into rank unprofitability over the past decade.
But Starmer's conviction that the problem is the messaging, not the man, appears to be manifesting in the form of multiplying spin- doctors: in April he replaced one Downing Street director of communications (Matthew Doyle) with two (Steph Driver and James Lyons).
One of the PM's biggest motivations, however, is a primal urge to suck up to the Murdoch empire.
As the last Eye noted, he has been taking every opportunity to meet with News Corp chair Lachlan, and despite the regular kickings the Sun doles out to the government, the paper continues to be gifted the kind of exclusives that are denied to loyal outlets like the Mirror and Guardian.
Sadly, bringing Dinsmore on board is unlikely to prove a tactical masterstroke: given the Mafia levels of loyalty that are expected from News Corp execs, the poaching of one of their own is far more likely to bring vengeance raining down on Number 10 than good headlines.
Disaster management
With the unfortunate timing that a competent spin-doctor might have clocked, the announcement of Dinsmore's appointment came at a particularly difficult point in negotiations over the introduction of a "Hillsborough Law", with the bereaved families of the 97 people who died in that disaster and were subsequently traduced by the Sun already making clear their disappointment with the prime minister's failure to act.
They, along with Labour's Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram, swiftly declared themselves sickened by Dinsmore's appointment.
In 2013, when asked about the Sun's coverage of Hillsborough, Dinsmore said: "Well, I was at school at the time." This makes it sound like he was still in short trousers and couldn't possibly be expected to grasp the appalling nature of what was written. In fact, in April 1989 when Hillsborough occurred, he was 20. He began working for the Sun the following year.
Next issue on sale: 20th August 2025
More top stories in the latest issue:
LINKS EFFECT
Mirror staff have been told to add an "inline link" to a story from a specific list in the third paragraph of every story they file, whether it is relevant or not.
FANNING THE FLAMES
A year on from widespread social unrest on the streets, certain corners of the press seem worryingly excited about the prospect of further trouble.
CAN'T COMPLAIN
Press watchdog Ipso is aware of the problems arising from the use of AI in newspapers – and yet it suggests using AI "to help draft your complaint"!
KEYBOARD LORD
Daniel Hannan fulminated against the new Online Safety Act in a column for the Daily Mail – but did he speak up in the House of Lords? Er…
INTERESTING TIMES
Recently appointed Saturday columnist Fraser Nelson has been keen to win friends and influence people in the Times offices.
REIGN OF ERROR
The Telegraph is now deemed so unreliable by other outlets that editors are telling hacks not to repeat its stories, for fear of complaints to the regulator.
BORDERLINE CASES
The national press has made much use of "research" by the Centre for Migration Control, but it is just a one-man band producing opaque and selective data.
