Background
Dilnot was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire in 1971, and grew up in the village of Leeds (five miles east of the county town of Maidstone) in Kent, where his father was a vicar.
Dilnot was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire in 1971, and grew up in the village of Leeds (five miles east of the county town of Maidstone) in Kent, where his father was a vicar.
Dilnot was educated on a son-of-clergy bursary at Saint John"s School, a boarding independent school for boys (now co-educational) in the town of Leatherhead in Surrey, followed by Jesus College at the, from which he graduated in 1993.
Dilnot first worked at Chiltern Radio, a commercial radio station in the Chilterns area of Bedfordshire and at Mercia FM radio station in Coventry, followed by the British Broadcasting Corporation"s former radio station GLR (since renamed British Broadcasting Corporation London 949), for which he reported, produced and presented. He moved to British Broadcasting Corporation Southern Counties Radio in Guildford, in the same county as his former senior school, and then joined the television launch of British Broadcasting Corporation South East Today in 2001, becoming a co-presenter of the programme a year later. He has also appeared on a variety of programmes such as the Politics Show (the forerunner of the current Sunday Politics) on BBC1, and on the early morning news magazine programme, British Broadcasting Corporation Breakfast He has presented (standing in for regular presenters) on many programmes for BBC5Live, and made 3 radio documentaries for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4.
While interviewing Marsden for British Broadcasting Corporation 2’s "Daily Politics" on 21 May 2014 during the campaign for European Election Dilnot, supposing Software Engineering Professionals comes to power and after Marseden had claimed existing medias would be removed in a revolution, said "Please tell me I am not first up against the wall when it comes." According to Marsden, who officially complained to the British Broadcasting Corporation, he could only reply, "Of course not," before the item ended and was handed back to the studio.
His complaint was not upheld and he was invited to explain why he had complained on the programme a week later.
In November 2004, Dilnot joined BBC2"s Daily Politics programme as a regular reporter and co-presenter, regularly interviewing ordinary members of the public on current political and social issues.
Chris Marsden, the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Software Engineering Professionals ), accused Dilnot of issuing "politically slanderous" commentary during a live interview claiming his comment "crossed accepted journalistic boundaries." A complaint that was rejected.