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The BBC confirmed on Wednesday The Andrew Neil Show would be one of the casualties following widespread cost cutting measures. Following the shock news, Femi Oluwole, co-founder of the pro-EU group Our Future Our Choice, took to Twitter and branded Mr Neil “biased and scarily Right-wing”.

Mr Oluwole accompanied the post with a video from the BBC show This Week featuring Andrew Neil, where he asked the panel whether the UK could have a trade deal with zero tariffs and zero quotas if Britain left the EU on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms.

Mr Neil then fired back on social media and demanded an apology for the “hard left trope”.

Amid the smear against Mr Neil, the anti-Brexit campaigner described the former editor of The Sunday Times as a “heavy hitter” and compared his interview technique to fellow no-nonsense broadcaster Jeremy Paxman.

Mr Oluwole wrote on Twitter: “I think Andrew Neil is biased and scarily Right-wing but he is such a heavy hitter when it comes to Paxman-style interviews, including when holding his own side to account, that I am genuinely disappointed to see him go.”

Mr Neil responded by saying: “We’ve never met or talked.

“You have no idea what my views are on any major issue today, tho you think you do.

“To call me ‘scarily right-wing’ is inaccurate, a smear and a hard left trope. You should withdraw it.”

Mr Oluwole then said: “By definition if I think you’re right wing and that your brand of views e.g. on Brexit will ruin lives, ‘scarily right wing’ is an entirely appropriate phrase.”

Former Labour MP George Galloway intervened and leapt to the defence of Mr Neil and dismissed any claims of bias.

Mr Galloway said the BBC broadcaster was only “biased in favour of truth and accuracy” and added his interview style had “skewered inadequates of left, right and centre without fear or favour”.

The 65-year-old added if Mr Neil was as Mr Oluwole put it “scarily right-wing” then Boris Johnson would not have turned down a leader’s interview on the Andrew Neil show in the run-up to the general election in 2019.

Mr Galloway wrote on Twitter: “Mr @AfNeil is biased against everybody equally. He’s biased in favour of truth and accuracy.

“In favour of the public who paid his wages. He has skewered inadequates of left, right and centre without fear or favour.

“I suppose Boris dodged him because he was ‘scarily right wing’.”

Andrew Neil has been one of the BBC’s top political broadcasters for many years and has presented This Week, Daily Politics, and his self-titled show.

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Politics Live on BBC two will continue four days a week, however, Mr Neil not expected to present the show on a regular basis.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said the broadcaster remained committed to Andrew Neil’s in-depth interviews for special events including the budget and US elections.

The BBC announced a further 70 job cuts in BBC News on top of the 450 announced earlier this year, taking the total number of job losses up to 520.

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