Brexit: Jon Snow admits to ‘tasteless’ question on older voters

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Mr Snow, 73, who welcomed a baby with his with wife Precious last month, has decided to step down from anchoring Channel 4 News, a position he has held since 1989. Channel 4 said he will continue to work with them on longer-form projects and represent the channel in “other matters”. Mr Snow himself said it was “time to move on” after “three incredible decades”.

While he has spent 45 years at ITN, it was not always his ambition to be a journalist.

In an interview with Radio Times in 2013, Mr Snow said in his teens he had dreams of entering Parliament as a Tory.

However, he was “radicalised” in Uganda while working for Voluntary Service Overseas.

He said: “I was suddenly aware that I was dealing with kids who were just as bright as any kid I’d ever met but who had absolutely no books. I felt a sense of injustice.”

The Channel 4 News presenter is now a self-confessed “pious pinko-liberal”, who has been accused of anti-Tory bias.

READ MORE: Jon Snow claimed to be ‘one of the most conservative’ at Channel 4

In June 2017, is was reported Mr Snow had shouted “f*** Tories” at Glastonbury Festival, sparking fury from those on the right.

While he claimed he had “no recollection of what was chanted, sung or who I took over 1,000 selfies with”, he came under fire from many people on social media.

He was even criticised on air by a guest on Channel 4 News and former Conservative minister Grant Shapps refused to appear on the show, saying he doubted Mr Snow’s neutrality.

Mr Shapps said: “I don’t know if he can deal in an even-handed manner in any interview with a Conservative MP. He has lost all credibility.” 

MP Andrew Bridgen even went so far as to call for Mr Snow’s resignation, arguing that his “extreme views” were incompatible with an impartial interviewer. 

Rival presenter for the BBC, Andrew Marr, said if he had made similar comments he would have been sacked.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 released a statement informing viewers that Mr Snow had been “spoken to and reminded of his responsibility around impartiality”.

Despite his blatant anti-Conservative views, Mr Snow also claimed he is “one of the most Conservative faces” at Channel 4 News.

Denying that Channel 4 News is left-learning, Mr Snow snow said it just gives a different angle.

He said: “It should be other. It should be for those, perhaps, who had less of a voice anywhere else. 

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“I think there are a lot of people in minority communities who look to us for some reason and feel that we are more ‘on their side’.

“That may be in part because we actually have a very ethnically diverse presentation team.” 

However, this was not the end of the accusations of bias aimed at the Channel 4 veteran.

Mr Snow has since been accused of an anti-Brexit bias, after a remark in March this year that prompted 2,644 complaints to Ofcom.

Channel 4 say ‘complaints are welcome’ in message to viewers

While reporting on a pro-Brexit rally, Mr Snow said: “I’ve never seen so many white people in one place.”

A Channel 4 spokeswoman said it had been an “unscripted observation” and that Mr Snow regretted any offence caused.

Ofcom investigated the complaints and cleared him of any wrongdoing in August.

Mr Snow has expressed his personal opinion on a range of other issues, too.

For example, he has expressed his opposition to Israel’s bombing of Gaza in Palestine.

He also openly took part in an experiment to demonstrate the effects of cannabis on the brain. 

Mr Snow has also condemned what he called “poppy fascism” in the run up to Remembrance Day.

He said in 2013 that there “must be more important things in life than whether a new presenter wears symbols on his lapels”. 

While Mr Snow claimed to be “one of the most conservative faces” in the Channel 4 newsroom, he added that he was also “a rebel”. 

He is known for donning brightly coloured ties and socks – something he claimed he started just to wind up the production team.

He said: “I’m wearing a bright tie largely because they told me colours on television didn’t work. 

“In old-fashioned colour TV they would blow out a bit. I wore them deliberately.”

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