Iain Dale cautioned for assaulting protester
The publisher of Damian McBride's book has been cautioned for assaulting a protester, during an interview with the former spin doctor this week.
The radio presenter and publisher Iain Dale was filmed dragging anti-nuclear protester Stuart Holmes to the ground in Brighton on Tuesday.
McBride had been conducting an interview with ITV for his new book about working with Gordon Brown, when Holmes tried to get his anti-nuclear placard into shot.
Dale wrestled him to the ground. In the confusion, Holmes dog appeared to bite his owner as the two men rolled on the ground.
Dale initially defended his actions, writing on his blog that "I did what any self respecting publisher would do."
"In some ways I have committed the cardinal sin of becoming the story myself, rather than my author, and I regret that," he wrote on Tuesday.
"But do I regret that I stepped in to protect my author? No I do not,"
He added that: "Everyone has an inalienable right to protest, but no one has a right to make a continual nuisance of themselves and interrupt interviews like that."
The blog post in which he refers to Holmes as an "idiot" has since been removed and he has issued a full apology.
"I want to apologise and say sorry to Stuart Holmes, who is a passionate campaigner and well known to everyone who attends party conferences and was perfectly entitled to do as he did on Tuesday in trying to get attention for his causes," he wrote on his blog today.
"It was totally out of character for me to react to him in the way I did."
Holmes denied he had been trying to interrupt the interview.
"I was not ruining the interview, I was just in the background. I was not saying anything," he said.
"Then this giant of a guy turned up and grabbed hold of me. I struggled free and in the process we ended up on the floor."
You can watch a recording of the incident below.
