‘You can go on endlessly if you are on the losing side’: David Dimbleby hits out at Remainers for ‘endlessly’ moaning about Brexit
- David Dimbleby argued ‘people had masses of information’ before the 2016 vote
- Former Question Time presenter said Remain campaign was manifestly hopeless
- He said BBC licence fee system is ‘unfair’ because everyone pays same amount
David Dimbleby has said Remain voters who ‘endlessly’ complain about the Brexit referendum do not have the ‘grounds’ to do so.
Former Question Time presenter Dimbleby argued that before the 2016 vote ‘people had masses of information’ and the Remain campaign had been ‘manifestly hopeless’.
Speaking at Henley Literary Festival yesterday, the veteran presenter who came out of retirement last month to join the BBC team covering the Queen’s funeral, said people listened to the ‘actual argument’.
Mr Dimbleby, 83, pictured right, who spent almost six decades at the corporation, also disagreed with former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis that the broadcaster had been guilty of false equivalence over Brexit.
Former Question Time presenter Dimbleby argued that before the 2016 vote ‘people had masses of information’ and the Remain campaign had been ‘manifestly hopeless’
In August Miss Maitlis – who left the BBC in February after 20 years – criticised the corporation’s ‘both-sidesism’ approach to covering Brexit – meaning she was forced to give equal weight to both camps.
She described this as ‘superficial balance’ in a speech to the Edinburgh Television Festival.
But Mr Dimbleby argued yesterday that it was perfectly reasonable to reflect both sides of an argument.
He said: ‘It’s the ideas that matter, not the weight of opinion.’
Speaking about the 2016 vote to leave the European Union, he said: ‘People had masses of information. Some of the campaign may not have been particularly brilliantly done, indeed the Remain campaign was manifestly hopeless.
‘And the Leave campaign traded on this immigration idea which the Remain campaign sort of ignored.
‘I know people on both sides of the debate; they all say the BBC got it wrong.
‘You can go on endlessly if you are on the losing side, complaining. That’s human nature.
‘But I don’t think there is grounds for complaint myself. I really don’t.’
He repeated his view that the BBC licence fee system is ‘unfair’ because everyone pays the same amount, so that a well-off person like himself pays the same as someone on a low wage.
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