MP claims BBC has a 'collective breakdown' after Brexit

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Conservative MP Julian Knight hit out at the BBC for not “getting on with it” after a majority of the British public voted to leave the European Union in 2016. Speaking to GB News, Mr Knight said: “It was not in touch at all over Brexit, it had a collective nervous breakdown in my view.

“It didn’t understand it, it was rather contemptuous of its listenership and viewership, the 52 percent who voted Leave.

“Those like me who voted Remain actually believed the day afterwards it was a done deal and to get on with it.

“They didn’t get it even slightly and I think that brought into sharper focus the issue wherein which the BBC culturally feels a bit disconnected.”

The BBC has previously been told to abolish the TV licence fee as the publicly-funded broadcaster “fails to offer unbiased” news coverage, a political leader has claimed.

The leader of the SDP, William Clouston, has insisted that the BBC’s TV licence fee charge is “complete anachronism”.

He suggested that the broadcaster should monetise past programmes and slim down its “bloated” company.

Mr Clouston went on to claim the BBC is failing to offer unbiased news coverage.

Speaking to Calvin Robinson from Defund the BBC, Mr Clouston said: “The first line is to get rid of the licence fee which I think is a complete anachronism.

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“There’s no need to charge people a flat tax for this service.

“We need to get rid of that. The BBC can, will and should be funded by Government directly, I think, and also by making more of its own subscriptions.

“They can monetise past programmes. Broadly the BBC is vastly bloated and it needs slimming down.”

Mr Clouston continued: “The first thing is to abolish the licence fee.

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“The issue over impartiality is the key problem. We looked into this in great detail, we think that we should have a royal commission to properly examine its bias.

“We included Channel 4 in that which is also a publicly funded broadcaster because both organisations are failing to offer what their charters say they should offer which is to be politically unbiased. They’re obviously failing at that.”

The BBC has always denied allegations of bias and in its editorial guidelines the cooperation states it is “impartial, seeking to reflect the views and experiences of our audiences”.

On the BBC position, a spokeswoman for the Department of Media previously said: “It is an open recruitment process and all public appointments are subject to a robust and fair selection criteria.”

Express.co.uk have contacted the BBC about Mr Knight’s comments.

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