Dyke: "I could not vote for Blair"

Former BBC director-general Greg Dyke has said that he no longer trusts Tony Blair and will vote for the Liberal Democrats in the upcoming General Election.

"I could not vote for a Labour party with Tony Blair as its leader," Dyke told ITV News. "If it had been a Gordon Brown Labour Party, yes, I might have voted for him because I have much more trust in him."

The news will surprise few, given the animosity between Dyke and Blair in the wake of the Andrew Gilligan affair.

Dyke supported the New Labour movement and continued to support the party after its election success in 1997, up until he was appointed director-general of the BBC in June 1999 and resigned from the party.

Today, however, Dyke lashed out at controversial Labour policies such as top-up fees and indicated that he did not believe the party was sticking to its principles by failing to implement a higher rate of tax on the richest in society.

"I have decided to vote Liberal and decided to support the Liberal Party for a number of reasons, some of which are that I find some of their policies much closer to what I believe than I find the Labour Party to be," he said, making specific mention of tuition fees and the taxation issue.

"I actually happen to believe that people like me who earn more than £100,000 a year should pay more tax," he said, and added that "to see kids leaving universities with debts of £20,000 is not the Labour Party I believed in."

The Lib Dems seized on Dyke's comments. The party's president, Simon Hughes, said:

"I welcome Greg Dyke's support, and that of the many thousands of former Labour supporters who are now turning to the Liberal Democrats to offer a real alternative to Tony Blair's government.

"Greg Dyke's views on tuition fees, Iraq and fair taxation echo those of voters up and down the country which is why there are now no 'no-go' areas for the Liberal Democrats at this election."