I've spent £1M buying cars but should never have sold Princess Diana's old convertible, says broadcaster Iain Dale

Iain Dale is a broadcaster and a presenter on LBC radio since 2009. 

The 64-year-old has also written a string of political books and was crowned Radio Presenter of the Year at the Commercial Radio Awards in 2013 and 2016.

Dale, a lifelong West Ham United fan, lives with his partner John and their two dogs – miniature schnauzer Woody, three, and Jack Russell Dude, 15 – in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

What did your parents teach you about money?

I was one of three – I’ve got two sisters – and grew up on a small farm in Essex run by my late parents.

My mother Jane, who was very frugal, warned me to ‘never a borrower or lender be’ – but I’m afraid I rather ignored her advice.

I had to borrow money from family and friends when I opened Politico’s bookshop in 1997, and I later started a publishing company, because the banks were so unhelpful.

My father Garry was the opposite of my mum – if he wanted something, he’d buy it.

He amassed a collection of 2,000-plus country music and jazz LPs. If eBay or Amazon were around when I was a kid, I suspect that he’d have spent every penny on buying records.

Iain Dale is a broadcaster and a presenter on LBC radio since 2009

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Yes, I graduated from university with debts of £20,000 in the mid-80s after using four or five credit cards to buy books, records and the latest gadgets.

I vowed never to get into debt again, but in 2004 I found myself walking along the street in Cromer with just 16p in my pocket, having maxed out my credit cards and exceeded my overdraft limit.

‘How on earth have I got myself into this situation?’ I wondered.

But politics is an expensive business – I was the Tory candidate for North Norfolk at the time, and after the 2005 general election I found myself £40,000 in debt.

I only got out of that financial hole by selling my cottage, which had gone up in value since I bought it a couple of years earlier.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

Some people might think I’m paid silly money for being a radio presenter. And yes, it is a well-remunerated profession – although I’m certainly not paid Gary Lineker-type money.

I also get paid handsomely to give speeches and talks. My best gig? Probably being paid £8,000 to host a two-day conference in Azerbaijan. Mind you, I sometimes think they must be absolutely mad to pay me so much!

What was the best year of your financial life?

I remember thinking I’d made it when my salary went up from £14,000 to £25,000 in 1989 – but I went on to earn £60,000 as a transport industry lobbyist in the mid-1990s.

I didn’t think it would get better than that, though I now make a six-figure sum as a broadcaster, commentator and author.

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

I’m a bit of a petrolhead and have always liked driving nice cars. I started off with a Ford Cortina Mk III. I’ve since owned a string of Audis and currently drive an Audi Q6 e-tron, which set me back £65,000, and a used Audi S5 Cabriolet costing a third of that.

I must have spent approaching £1million on the 30-odd cars I’ve owned over the years, but I don’t go on expensive holidays.

I think I’m a good driver, even if I’ve been banned twice after totting up speeding points – but there are cameras everywhere now.

I also once bid £5,000 in an auction to have afternoon tea with Joan Collins, but sadly footballer Peter Crouch outbid me.

Iain Dale purchased Princess Diana's cabriolet but sold it a year later for the same price

What was your biggest money mistake?

The first cabriolet I bought – painted turquoise with white seats – in 1995, had belonged to Princess Diana (I saw the paperwork so I knew it was true). 

It cost £23,000 and I sold it for the same amount the following year. I later heard that it was bought by someone in Hong Kong for £1million after Diana died. It’s a big regret – had I delayed the sale it would have set me up for life.

I later invested a six-figure sum in a friend’s forestry company, but it turned out the bookkeeper was siphoning off money to fund a gambling habit, and the company was forced into liquidation. 

I lost my investment, but my friend has promised to pay me back when he’s back on his feet.

Best money decision you have made?

In terms of a return on an investment, it has to be the £1 I spent, aged 14, on a cinema screen at a local farm sale that I attended with my father, and then sold to my school for £110.

Besides that, it was buying a holiday home with my partner in Norfolk in 2013 – we sold it just over a decade later for close to double what we’d paid for it.

Will you pass down your money or spend it all?

We don’t have any children, but John and I have drawn up wills to ensure that if one of us dies – I’m a type 2 diabetic so I doubt I’ll live as long as some people – the other can be guaranteed a comfortable retirement.

That said, I’ll naturally leave something for my wider family and friends.

Iain Dale with Boris Johnson during the Conservative leadership election of 2019 

Do you have a pension?

I’ve been paying a relatively small amount into a private pension since my twenties, though I rather lost confidence in the pensions industry after the then Chancellor Gordon Brown raided it in 1997.

Thankfully, John has made some good property decisions over the years.

Do you own any property?

Yes, my main four-bedroom house in Tunbridge Wells which I bought with John for a six-figure sum in 2003. We also own a small house in the town which we rent out, and have a share in a friend’s house in East Sussex.

If you were Chancellor what would you do?

I’d abolish inheritance tax and stamp duty, which is licensed robbery. I’d also slash public spending and put VAT up to 25 per cent to allow the Government to raise tax thresholds.

What is your number one financial priority?

To build up enough resilience to make sure that John and I can survive whatever the future has in store for us. 

I think we as a nation also need to develop much greater resilience when it comes to things like protecting our food supply and civil defence.

Have I Said Too Much? – My Life In Politics And The Media (Biteback), by Iain Dale, is out now. Iain Dale In The Evening, LBC, Mon-Thurs, 7pm.