How Brexit vote stunned ‘out of touch’ BBC, by Humphrys
JOhN humphrys has admitted that the BBC is out of touch with the population, recalling how bosses were ‘absolutely stunned’ on the morning of the Brexit referendum result.
The veteran broadcaster said he suspected that the reaction to the vote within the BBC’s headquarters was markedly different from the feeling ‘in a cafe round the corner’.
And he conceded that it was evidence that those at the top of the organisation do sometimes ‘lose touch’ with the general public.
humphrys, 74, spoke out during an interview with Radio Times to mark the 60th anniversary of the Today current affairs programme which he co-presents on Radio 4.
he and his fellow presenters Justin Webb, 56, Mishal husain, 44, Nick Robinson, 54, and Sarah Montague, 51, were interviewed together over breakfast. When asked what he made of recent com- ments by Jeremy Vine that if you had listened to Radio 2 in the runup to the referendum you would not have been shocked by the result, but if you had listened to Radio 4 you would be, humphrys said: ‘Where Jeremy is right is that there’s a disconnect between the people who run the BBC and a large chunk of the population.
‘I noted on the morning of the referendum that in the BBC almost everybody who came in, above all, all the bosses, looked absolutely stunned.
‘And I suspect if you walked into a cafe round the corner frequented by a rather wider mix of the population, there wouldn’t have been that same sense of being utterly stunned. They’d have been maybe a bit surprised, but perhaps not even that. I think we sometimes do lose touch with the population.’
earlier this year more than 70 MPs wrote to BBC director- general Tony hall to complain about the ‘pessimistic and skewed’ coverage of Brexit. They said the corporation was ‘skewing’ good economic news since the vote and was ‘unfairly representing’ Leave voters by focusing on those who regretted their decision.
An episode of BBC1’s Countryfile also sparked an outcry after a segment examining the impact of Brexit on seasonal migrant farm workers and those who employ them was described as ‘Leftie, pro-eU propaganda’.
More recently, Trade Secretary Liam Fox said the BBC’s ‘bizarre’ coverage of Brexit risked damaging the UK’s chances of securing a good deal in negotiations.
humphrys said he was surprised by the Brexit vote. Robinson added: ‘The only people who knew, knew from a hunch. Point to the programme, the newspaper, the pollster, the politician who got it right? You won’t find one.’
Asked if they as presenters had been ‘stunned’ by the result, Montague replied: ‘Yes, do you remember that morning? We arrived earlier than usual and I remember standing there thinking, “Whoa… how do we tell this story?” ’
The co-presenters’ BBC salaries total around £1.5million, the corporation’s recent publishing of stars’ pay revealed. humphrys is paid up to £650,000, Robinson is in the £ 250,000-£ 299,000 pay bracket, husain earns £200,000£ 250,000, Webb gets between £150,000 and £199,000, and Montague less than £150,000.