Sunday Times and Sun columnist Rod Liddle dies aged 66

The writer and broadcaster Rod Liddle, a prominent columnist for The Sunday Times and The Sun, has died after a short illness. He was 66.Liddle, whose provocative style attracted praise and criticism, also wrote for The Spectator magazine and earlier in his career edited BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Liddle worked as a speechwriter for the Labour party in the 1980s, but his later writing often critiqued and criticised the left.Tributes to Liddle were paid by Piers Morgan, the former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil and the Today programme presenter Justin Webb, who described Liddle as brilliant, kind and funny.The former Sun editor David Yelland said Liddle “morphed into a brilliant and gifted writer who I could rarely agree with but always turned to first”.He said: “It was because he was so talented he was able to behave so badly and write so (it has to be said) abhorrently on many occasions. And he knew this. It was his essence. RIP Rod.”Rod Liddle (right) with the then Conservative party leader, David Cameron, campaigning with his home affairs spokesperson, David Davis. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The GuardianLiddle died at the James Cook university hospital in Middlesbrough on Sunday evening. His children, Wilder, Tyler and Emmy, said in a statement: “We’re all very saddened and shocked at the sudden passing of our wonderful father.“He raised us much as you might imagine, to be inquisitive, brave and always humorous. Even in hospital in the last few weeks, he consistently held the room and never let the awful situation show.“He has left a legacy that we are all incredibly proud of, he will always be our guide on how to live an extraordinary life.”Rod Liddle at The Spectator summer party in 2011 with his second wife, Alicia Monckton. Photograph: Alan Davidson/ShutterstockLiddle was no stranger to controversy. In 2010 he became the first blogger to be censured by the Press Complaints Commission, for incorrectly stating in a Spectator piece that the “overwhelming majority” of violent crime in London was carried out by young African-Caribbean men.Liddle left as editor of Today in 2002. At the time, it was reported that his departure followed a disagreement with the BBC’s then director general, Greg Dyke, about a regular column he wrote for the Guardian.In one column Liddle had criticised Countryside Alliance marchers as “Mill on the Floss extras” and “those who own the countryside, or run it, together with a forelock-tugging menagerie of their better-paid servants”.Rod Liddle during his time as producer of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Photograph: Graham Turner/The GuardianIt was during his tenure at Today that Liddle hired Andrew Gilligan, the journalist whose 2003 report claimed the UK government had “sexed up” its dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Liddle left the BBC before Gilligan’s report was broadcast.Liddle also presented a programme about infidelity, arguing that men were genetically pre-programmed to be unfaithful. His former wife had written about his adultery in a series of newspaper features.Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News UK, which publishes The Sunday Times and The Sun, said everyone at the company had been “deeply shocked and saddened” to learn of his sudden death.“Rod was an inimitable journalistic force, brilliant, provocative and immensely talented, whose sharp wit and uncompromising voice graced our pages and airwaves for decades,” she said. “He challenged conventional thinking and left an indelible mark on British journalism.”Ben Taylor, the editor of The Sunday Times, said: “Rod Liddle had a wonderful way with words and used his unique talent to speak for the readers, highlighting the cant and absurdity that bedevils modern life. He was also supremely entertaining and for years his column was the first that many turned to every Sunday. We will miss him desperately.”Victoria Newton, the editor-in-chief of The Sun, said: “A champion of press freedom, no topic was off-limits, and his writing – as funny as it was excoriating – was simply exceptional. A terrific observer of the frailties of our political class, he will be remembered for his razor sharp wit and for his huge intellect.”