Andrew Neil steps down as Spectator chair after £100m sale to GB News investor finalised

Political journalist Andrew Neil has resigned as chair of The Spectator after 20 years at the helm.

Neil spoke of his “great sadness” at stepping down after the “immense privilege” of chairing the world’s oldest current affairs magazine.

Financier and GB News investor Sir Paul Marshall becomes the 196-year-old magazine’s 14th proprietor.

Neil wrote on X/Twitter: “During [the past 20 years] we have transformed the oldest magazine in the world, established in the age of the quill pen, into one of the most successful publications of the digital age, growing revenues rapidly across all digital platforms while still maintaining a very healthy print circulation.”

He said he was “proud” of the people behind the magazine, which “has never been more profitable, its reach never wider, at home and abroad”.

Neil added that his proudest recollection of his time in charge is that he did not “preside over a single compulsory redundancy in 20 years”, during an era of cost-cutting in the legacy print media.

Explaining the “purgatory” of the last 16 months – after the Barclay family put the magazine up for sale – Neil said: “Suddenly and without warning we were placed in receivership, because our then proprietors had used us as collateral for massive debts unrelated to us (without ever telling us). They then failed to pay these debts.”

The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph were put up for sale in June 2023 following a financial dispute involving Lloyds Bank and the Barclay family, when the outlets’ holding companies went into liquidation.

Neil threatened to quit when a company linked to the United Arab Emirates attempted to buy Telegraph Media Group Limited (TMG), saying: “You cannot have a major mainstream newspaper group owned by an undemocratic government or dictatorship where no one has a vote.”

The editor of The Spectator, Fraser Nelson, also criticised the proposed deal.

RedBird IMI, an Abu Dhabi and American-backed entity, paid £600m last year for TMG before its attempt to take over was thwarted by the government and a change in ownership law.

With The Spectator now sold to Sir Paul, the Telegraph will need to be sold for £500m if RedBird is to recoup the money. Many will see this as a vindication of RedBird IMI saying they would only make this forced sale if it made ecomonic sense and media commentators have raised eyebrows at the £100m price tag which shows a very healthy vanity premium. The next step of the current owners is to deliver an equally high price for the Telegraph sale.

Sir Paul, a hedge fund manager, the owner of Unherd magazine and a part owner of GB News, was named the 17th most powerful right-wing figure in 2023 by The New Statesman.

When Neil quit GB News as chair and lead presenter in 2021 – having gone on a “break” just two weeks after it was launched – Sir Paul took over the chairmanship.

Neil has since spoken out about the “differences” that emerged between him and “other senior managers and the board of GB News”.

He said: “I thought it wasn’t for me; I had wanted a different route – it doesn’t mean that I’m right or they’re wrong, but it certainly was a difference.

“The differences were such that the direction they were going in was not the direction that I had outlined; it was not the direction I had envisaged for the channel.”

Neil was said to be unhappy about the botched launch of the new channel, which was fraught with technical mistakes, along with the loss of key staff and the political direction in which it was going.