<em>A</em> Catalan news site said that John Carlin was the third contributor to <em>El Pais </em>to fall victim to “ideological censorship”

A veteran British journalist has been sacked by El Pais, the Spanish newspaper, over an article in The Times criticising the handling of the Catalonia crisis by Madrid and King Felipe.

The centre-left daily ended the contract of John Carlin, 61, who has been contributing to El Pais since 1998, as a result of his essay in Saturday’s Times that was headlined “Catalan independence: arrogance of Madrid explains this chaos”.

Carlin, who lived in Catalonia for 15 years, accused the Spanish government of intransigence in his essay for in The Times ROMINA SANTARELLI / MINISTERIO DE CULTURA DE LA NA

Carlin, who has a Spanish mother and lived for 15 years in Catalonia, wrote that Mariano Rajoy and his conservative government had largely provoked the crisis by failing to understand feelings in the region and refusing compromise. He criticised “the inexplicable refusal of Rajoy’s government to try to solve the problem through international mediation,