A decisive force in the Brexit campaign, Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre leaves behind a divisive legacy as his tenure at the helm of the influential tabloid comes to an end after 26 years. Lord Rothermere, head of the Daily Mail's parent company, called him "the greatest Fleet Street editor of his generation" and supporters and critics alike called it the "end of an era".
Under his leadership, the paper became known for its virulent right-wing campaigns against immigration and its anti-EU views, wielding an influence over Britain's Conservative Party that was reminiscent of a bygone time of all-powerful newspaper barons.
Kevin Maguire, associate editor of the left-wing Daily Mirror newspaper, described Dacre as the "Godfather of Fleet Street" and said that "catastrophic Brexit was his last hurrah".
Ahead of the 2016 EU membership referendum, then prime minister David Cameron, who supported Britain staying in the bloc, asked Dacre to "cut him some slack" in the campaign, the BBC reported.
After Dacre refused to step down, Cameron asked Lord Rothermere to sack him which made the editor "incandescent" and his resolve to campaign for Brexit "stiffened", a source told BBC Newsnight.
While the Daily Mail attracted intense criticism for its deliberate non-politically correct stances, it also had a long record of campaigning on civil rights and environmental issues.
Its fight for justice after the 1993 racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence and a badly handed police investigation, culminated in a famous front-page headline.