Richard Littlejohn

On 15 February 2018, Littlejohn, writing for his Daily Mail column, focused on the news that Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black were expecting their first child. Littlejohn stated that while he supported fostered children being brought up by loving, gay partners, as opposed to living in state institutions, he nonetheless adhered to his belief that children "benefit most from being raised by a man and a woman". He also criticised that in many cases of male gay relationships, Daley and Black included, women were being seen as "mere breeding machines" (their baby's surrogate mother not having been identified) and that offspring were shown off like "commodities".

One of Littlejohn's Sun columns – a 2004 skit, entitled "Rum, Sodomy and the Lifejacket", in which Lord Nelson is confronted with political correctness, compensation culture and the nanny state – has been published in newspapers, magazines, and websites with Littlejohn's writing credit removed.

In March 2013, Meadows was found dead with police reporting no suspicious circumstance, suggesting suicide. Littlejohn's article, which included a caption criticising the school for "burying" the news of Miss Meadows, was later removed from the Daily Mail' s website following Meadows' death, with an anonymously-authored obituary, repeatedly referring to Meadows as a man and making no mention of Littlejohn's article, appearing online and in print. Trans Media Watch, a charity for transgender people, said: "We have been deeply saddened to hear of the death of Lucy Meadows, who was outed by the press when she decided to transition." A petition drive was launched demanding Littlejohn be sacked. Two petitions signed by over 240,000 people were handed over to the Daily Mail offices.

At the inquest into her death on 28 May 2013, it was reported Meadows had contacted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over press harassment citing Littlejohn. Blackburn and Hyndburn Coroner Michael Singleton stated that press coverage of her gender reassignment was "ill informed bigotry" and that Richard Littlejohn in his article had "carried out what can only be described as a character assassination, having sought to ridicule and humiliate Lucy Meadows and bring into question her right to pursue her career as a teacher".

In the past year's Sun columns, Richard has referred 42 times to gays, 16 times to lesbians, 15 to homosexuals, eight to bisexuals, twice to 'homophobia' and six to being "homophobic" (note his inverted commas), five times to cottaging, four to "gay sex in public toilets", three to poofs, twice to lesbianism, and once each to buggery, dykery, and poovery. This amounts to 104 references in 90-odd columns – an impressive increase on his 2003 total of 82 mentions.

In December 2012, Littlejohn wrote an article criticising the decision of Accrington teacher Lucy Meadows to return to the same school after undergoing Gender Reassignment Surgery.

In December 2012 the Daily Mail published an apology following a piece written by Littlejohn which suggested that ethnic minority staff had got their jobs through discrimination and had threatened to sue the Equality and Human Rights Commissions. An apology was appended to the online version of the article after the Daily Mail published an apology in the print version.

In February 2011, Littlejohn wrote in his Daily Mail column that Haringey Council was using taxpayer funds for hopscotch lessons for Asian women. This was an urban myth first propagated in 1995 by the former Conservative Party chairman Brian Mawhinney, who took the name of the Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre literally. The centre offers "support services for Asian women and their families on a wide range of issues including domestic violence, benefits, housing, education, immigration and health matters [and provided] advocacy and support to people with learning disabilities".

In December 2010, Littlejohn satirised an incident in which a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy, Jody McIntyre, complained of mistreatment by police at a protest. Littlejohn argued that the young man involved should not have attended the protest, and compared him to Andy Pipkin from Little Britain. This prompted 500 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.

Littlejohn has said he is opposed to discrimination against homosexuals. In his Daily Mail column on 10 October 2007, he said, in reference to British society in the 1970s: "Though homosexuality wasn't exactly my idea of a night out, I thought it outrageous that gays were subjected to discrimination in areas such as employment, housing and pensions".

On 9 July 2007, Channel 4 showed a documentary entitled The War on Britain's Jews?, written and narrated by Littlejohn. Littlejohn has also appeared on BBC One's Question Time and Have I Got News for You.

In May 2005, the Mail announced that he was rejoining the paper in a move that Mail editor Paul Dacre described as "returning to his spiritual home". The Sun sought an injunction to prevent Littlejohn writing for the Mail before his existing contract with them ended in February 2006, but the matter was later settled out of court and Littlejohn began writing for the Mail in December 2005.

In 2004, the Diary column of The Guardian newspaper documented the results of a "Littlejohn audit"—a count of the number of references Littlejohn makes to homosexuality in his columns. Marina Hyde of The Guardian noted in 2004:

In early 2003 he returned to Sky News to present Littlejohn, a live talk show initially broadcast twice weekly but later extended to four nights per week. The programme was dropped on 8 July 2004 when Sky News changed format and replaced it with regular rolling news.

In February 1998, Littlejohn became the UK's best-paid columnist when he returned to The Sun to write a twice-weekly column as part of a £1million deal, which also included presenting for BSkyB.

Littlejohn hosted the first series of Channel 4's game show Wanted, a stand-in for Bob Mills). Wanted aired in October 1996 and won a Silver Rose at the Festival Rose d'Or. As part of a 1997 deal, which saw him return to The Sun, Littlejohn hosted a nightly talk show on Sky One called Littlejohn: Live And Unleashed.

In 1994, he left The Sun to write for the Daily Mail, contributing columns on news and current affairs (in a similar format to his Sun column), and one on sport. His Mail columns earned him the title "Columnist of the Year" at the 1997 British Press Awards.

After leaving LBC in 1994, Littlejohn was approached by BSkyB managing director (and former Sun editor) Kelvin Mackenzie, and was offered the chance to present a nightly current affairs show on the TV channel Sky News. Called Richard Littlejohn, the show ran for one year. It was not a success. Littlejohn expressed his disappointment, claiming that broadcasting regulations would not permit him to present the show in the style of Rush Limbaugh's programmes: "If Sky News could emulate its US sister Fox News... ratings would soon shoot past the Astra satellite. But the regulators won't allow it."

Later in 1994, Trevor Phillips of London Weekend Television hired Littlejohn to host a studio-based talk show entitled Richard Littlejohn Live And Uncut. Phillips produced three series of the programme, which was transmitted only in the London area.

On Littlejohn's show of 8 July 1994, he was critical of two lesbians, one of whom was Linda Bellos. The film director Michael Winner, a guest on the show, attacked Littlejohn for his views and told him that the two women "have come across with considerable dignity and you have come across as an arsehole".

In March 1993 he gave his support to the "Save the New Statesman fund" to raise cash to contest libel suits served on the magazine by the then Prime Minister John Major and caterer Claire Latimer.

By the end of the 1980s, Littlejohn was known in London for his Evening Standard columns, and was invited on to radio programmes as a pundit. From 1991, he worked for the London radio station LBC, beginning with a regular opinion spot. LBC later gave Littlejohn an early afternoon show, Littlejohn's Long Lunch; the programme was a talk show featuring topical discussion, phone-ins, and guests. He later became permanent presenter of the morning show, replacing Michael Parkinson.

He worked at the London newspaper the Evening Standard from 1979 to 1989, initially as industrial editor, later a feature writer, then in 1988 as a columnist. While industrial editor in the early 1980s he was asked to stand as a Labour Party candidate, which he declined. In 1989, he joined The Sun as a columnist, which attracted controversy, and he was voted "Irritant of the Year" at the 1992 What The Papers Say Awards.

He married Wendy A. Bosworth in 1974. They have two children, Georgina (b. 1975), also a journalist, and William (b. 1979), a chef.

At 16, Littlejohn found employment as a trainee journalist in Peterborough. He worked for local newspapers during the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, he joined the Birmingham Evening Mail as an industrial correspondent.

Littlejohn is a keen football fan and since the late 1960s has been a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur. He starred in his own football video, We Woz Robbed.

Richard Littlejohn (born 18 January 1954) is an English author, broadcaster and journalist. He writes a twice-weekly column for the Daily Mail.

Littlejohn was born in Ilford, Essex in 1954. His family moved to Peterborough when he was five. His father worked as a policeman and later as a manager for British Rail. Littlejohn attended West Town Primary School where he passed the eleven-plus, obtaining the highest marks in his year. He was offered a public school scholarship which he turned down because the school did not play football, and subsequently attended Deacons Grammar School.