Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has warned his incoming replacement that changing the paper’s stance on Brexit would be “editorial and commercial suicide”.
Writing in The Spectator, Dacre regaled its readers with a tale of the “many lovely letters” he has received after announcing he will soon step down from role after 26 years in the job.
He said those from David Blunkett and Gordon Brown were the “warmest” but David Davis had seen fit to complain about the exiting news chief “stealing his thunder”.
But Dacre said the majority came from readers worried whether the Mail will continue supporting Brexit when Geordie Greig - who as editor of the Mail On Sunday has taken a defiant pro-Remain stance - takes the helm later this year.
In a sharp shift in tone, Dacre ends with a stark warning to his successor, saying: “My answer to them - and others - is unequivocal.
“Support for Brexit is in the DNA of both the Daily Mail and, more pertinently, its readers.
“Any move to reverse this would be editorial and commercial suicide.”
The Mail on Sunday was under Greig’s editorship was constantly at loggerheads with its sister publication.
In its final edition before the referendum, the paper came out in favour of Remain, warning it is “not the time to risk the peace and prosperity” of the UK.