The Independent’s left-leaning readership was confused by this editorial shift.
Amol Rajan, editor of the newspaper, suddenly voted for David Cameron just two days before 2015 General Election.
A senior political source has claimed to The Mail on Sunday that Mr Rajan – now a rising star at the BBC – had agreed to support the Conservatives if Mr Cameron agreed to attend the birthday party of his proprietor, the Russian businessman Evgeny Lebedev.
The day following polling day, Mr Lebedev was 35 years old. The Guardian reported that Cameron attended the celebration.
In 2013, Mr Rajan became the first Fleet Street newspaper editor to be non-white at age 29. He has been in controversy over a controversial BBC documentary.
Rajan, a former advisor and confidant of Mr Lebedev is being considered as the frontrunner to succeed Laura Kuenssberg, BBC political editor.
This newspaper was informed by a source that Mr Rajan’s Independent, in months prior to the 2015 Election had strongly criticized the record of the Coalition Government’s Conservatives.
On April 4, a headline story in the New York Times revealed that a Senior Conservative Minister told a Liberal Democrat Cabinet member: ‘You look after the workers, we’ll take proper care of them.’
A senior political source has claimed to The Mail on Sunday that Amol Rajan (pictured) – now a rising star at the BBC – had agreed to support the Conservatives if Mr Cameron agreed to attend the birthday party of his proprietor, the Russian businessman Evgeny Lebedev
The same editorial slammed the Conservatives for misinterpreting the mood of the nation and declared that “they don’t reflect Britain like they once did.”
It added: ‘The plain fact is that the Conservatives have misread the national mood again, and it is depressing their electoral appeal …The Tory leadership looks and sounds a little too public school, a touch too smug and a bit too sympathetic to business vested interests.
“Despite some very positive moves regarding equal rights for homosexual people and race, the Conservative Party doesn’t reflect the country in the same way that it did during its greatest electoral success.”
It even suggested it could support Ed Miliband as Labour leader.
‘Perhaps Mr Cameron is right and disputedly Nicola Sturgeon that Ed Miliband does not have prime ministerial potential and has never held a real job. However, it’s Mr Miliband that is proving to be more popular, outside of Scotland.
Independent editorials criticized the Right to Buy plans of the Conservatives over the next few weeks. They claimed they would only exacerbate Britain’s housing crisis.
A second editorial called the Tories’ refusal to increase taxes ‘foolish. The Independent wrote in an April 27 editorial: Ed Miliband’s appeal for regulation of private sector rents was likely to be heard by many young voters and that the government has not done enough about it. [the housing crisis]’.
The Guardian reported on the 35th birthday of Mr Lebedev, which was the day after the polling day.
The Independent made a U-turn on May 5, just days before the Election. They lauded Cameron for creating two millions jobs.
They also said that the Tories “deserve enormous credit” for their efforts to improve schools.
The newspaper stated that, in complete departure from previous support for Miliband’s Labour leader, if he was elected, he would depend on the SNP for government, which “would be a catastrophe for the country.”
Although the Independent didn’t endorse any party prior to the General Election, it stated that a Lib-Con coalition would prolong recovery and allow our Kingdom to continue its existence.
It was not an unnoticed U-turn by the Independent. A flurry of angry letters came in to the paper on the following day.
One commented, “I am unable to comprehend your support for another Tory/Lib Dem coalition in order to save the United Kingdom.”
One other wrote, “We now know for certain that The Independent sympathies lie somewhere between The Conservative Party’s left and the right-leaning Liberal Democrats. This is because it has endorsed the Coalition Government.
“It is disappointing but not surprising that I have felt an increasing Right-ofcenter bias over the past weeks.”
One reader criticised the paper, saying: “Whoever made the editorial comment “In defence of Liberal Democracy” would be well advised to refresh their knowledge on the actual workings of political systems.
Pictured: Mr Rajan, who was recently in the news for his controversial BBC documentary that prompted the Royal Family and Royal Family to threaten boycott of the Corporation. He is the first Fleet Street editor to be non-white since he was 29 years old.
“The only way to damage Britain’s fragile democracy, and ensure the Scots break with the UK, is to vote for another divisive Conservative government like the one that has brought us into the current turmoil.”
One reader commented: “The Independent is empty now.”
A self-confessed Anglophile and Mr Lebedev made great efforts to attract Mr Cameron. He was invited to Chequers (the Prime Minister’s retreat in the country) to do a newspaper interview.
They have maintained close friendship, and Cameron attended the London Christmas party of Russian media mogul in 2019.
Sunday’s Mail reported that Queen Elizabeth had joined Princes Charles, William, and threatened to boycott BBC broadcasting over Rajan’s documentary.
This broadcast provoked a furious reaction and an uncharacteristic statement by the Royal Family, who criticized the claims of the broadcast as “overblown” and “unfounded”.
Last night, Mr Rajan denied that any suggestions were made by him about changing the editorial line in order to please his boss.
According to Mr Lebedev, the story was completely false.
Cameron refused to comment on a request.