Chris Roycroft-Davis

Chris Roycroft-Davis (born 13 August 1948) is a journalist working in the United Kingdom. He was chief leader writer of The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling morning newspaper.

Early life

Roycroft-Davis was born in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire and educated at Stratton Grammar School. His father was a journalist for more than 40 years and Chris left school at the age of 16 to become a junior reporter on the Bedfordshire Times.

Career

He moved to the Luton Evening Post as a sub-editor in 1969 and in 1970 began casual work in Fleet Street as a sports sub-editor on The People and a news-sub-editor on the recently launched Sun.

In 1972 he moved to Manchester to work as a sub-editor on the Daily Express, and quickly became deputy chief sub-editor and then Assistant Editor. Roycroft-Davis returned to The Sun in London in 1985 as Deputy Night Editor, then became Night Editor and Assistant Editor under the editorships of Kelvin MacKenzie, Stuart Higgins, David Yelland and Rebekah Wade.

Roycroft-Davis briefly left The Sun in 1989 when Sky Television was launched by The Sun's parent company, and he worked under Rupert Murdoch for almost two years in charge of promoting the new network in Press, TV and radio commercials.

In 1994 he became chief leader writer of The Sun, writing the paper's editorial column The Sun Says six days a week.[1] Roycroft-Davis left The Sun in 2005 to become a professional speaker, media coach, writer and broadcaster.

He worked as a speech and article writer for David Cameron[2] and currently writes political commentaries for the Daily Express and contributes to the comment pages of The Times. He broadcasts regularly on Michael Parkinson's Sunday show on BBC Radio 2. His book, How to be King of the Media Jungle, was published in October 2007.

Controversial Articles

On 12th Oct 2016 Roycroft-Davis wrote a controversial article for the Daily Express arguing that Members of Parliament should be imprisoned for asking for a vote on the terms of Britain leaving the European Union.[3] The article generated concern about issues of freedom of speech, violence and Parliamentary Sovereignty[4]

References

  1. Crewe, Ivor; Gosschalk, Brian; Bartle, John (1998). Political Communications: Why Labour Won the General Election of 1997. Routledge. p. 120. ISBN 0-7146-4923-6.
  2. Cozens, Claire (19 December 2005). "Sun columnist to write Cameron's speeches". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 January 2008.
  3. Roycroft-Davis, Chris (2016-10-12). "Parliament cannot thwart the will of the British people". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
  4. "This Daily Express article says MPs who oppose Brexit should be locked up in the Tower of London". indy100. 2016-10-12. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
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