Sunday Times and Sun columnist Rod Liddle dies

The Sunday Times and Sun columnist Rod Liddle has died.

The 66-year-old died in a Middlesbrough hospital yesterday evening after a short illness.

Liddle had written for The Sunday Times since 2005 and The Sun since 2011. He was also a weekly columnist at The Spectator and had a show on Times Radio.

His three children said they were "very saddened and shocked at the sudden passing of our wonderful father".

"Even in hospital in the last few weeks, he consistently held the room and never let the awful situation show," they added.

They said he had left "a legacy that we are all incredibly proud of".

Liddle was known for outspoken and often controversial columns that riled his critics.

He previously edited Radio 4's flagship Today programme but was forced to resign in 2003 over a piece in The Guardian the BBC said had breached its impartiality rules.

His current employers paid tribute to a man who was one of Britain's best-known journalists.

Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News UK, called Liddle "an inimitable journalistic force - brilliant, provocative and immensely talented".

She said he "challenged conventional thinking and left an indelible mark on British journalism".

More tributes came from the editor of The Sunday Times, Ben Taylor, who said colleagues would "miss him desperately".

Mr Taylor said Liddle "used his unique talent to speak for the readers, highlighting the cant and absurdity that bedevils modern life".

The Sun's editor, Victoria Newton, said he was a champion of press freedom and a "brilliant, fearless columnist who was much loved by all at The Sun".

Reform leader Nigel Farage also paid tribute, calling Liddle "one of the most prolific columnists Westminster has ever seen. He will be missed".

Liddle grew up in southeast London and moved to Middlesbrough, where his father's family were from, when he was young.

He got his first job in journalism at the South Wales Echo and later worked as a speechwriter for the Labour Party while also studying for a social psychology degree at LSE.

He joined the BBC as a junior producer on the Today programme in 1988 and landed the editor's job a decade later.

Liddle had a complaint upheld by the Press Complaints Commission in 2010 when he wrote that the "overwhelming majority" of violent crime in London was carried out by young Afro-Caribbean men.

It was one of multiple accusations of misogyny and racism he faced while working for The Spectator.

Read more from Sky News:
Thousands of illegal migrants still in Ceuta
Former X Factor contestant denies murder

His private life ended up in the papers when he left his wife, Rachel Royce, with whom he had two children, for his 23-year-old lover, a receptionist at The Spectator.

They went on to have a daughter of their own but the fallout saw Liddle and Royce, a BBC reporter, engage in a public war of words.

Liddle later presented a programme about infidelity in which he argued men are pre-programmed to be unfaithful.

(c) Sky News 2026: Sunday Times and Sun columnist Rod Liddle dies