Geordie Greig ousted as editor of the Daily Mail

Geordie Greig has been ousted as editor of the Daily Mail after just three years in the job, in a move that could change the relationship between the right-wing newspaper and Downing Street.

One individual with knowledge of Greig’s departure said it was a “power grab by Martin Clarke”, in reference to the powerful editor of MailOnline. It follows the announcement on Monday that the Daily Mail’s parent company would rejig its executive team to promote a key executive who worked for Clarke, at the expense of staff with a background in print newspapers.

Until now the highly profitable Daily Mail print edition, which is the UK’s biggest selling newspaper and retains substantial political influence, had continued to operate almost entirely independently from the more celebrity-focused MailOnline website.

In recent weeks Greig’s newspaper has been one of the fiercest critics of Boris Johnson’s handling of corruption allegations, helping to force Downing Street into a U-turn over its handling of the Owen Patterson affair.

Greig will be replaced by the Mail on Sunday editor, Ted Verity, who will have oversight of both titles, hinting that the sister newspapers could operate as a combined operation.

The decision was announced by Lord Rothermere, the controlling shareholder of the Daily Mail, who is in the process of delisting the business from the stock market and taking it back into private ownership.

It comes just days after the Guardian revealed that Greig’s predecessor Paul Dacre, a leading candidate for the job of Ofcom chair, had himself departed the company after more than 40 years with the business.

Greig said: “I thank everyone who has worked with me; my colleagues have been heroic and inspiring. I wish my successor, Ted Verity, good luck and also continued good fortune to the Mail. I look forward to new opportunities ahead and will bring the best of what I learned from my years at the Mail, which I first joined in 1983 as its most junior reporter on the graveyard shift.”

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