BBC delayed Brexit vote announcement despite ‘perfectly obvious results’

BBC delayed Brexit vote announcement despite ‘perfectly obvious results’ – David Dimbleby (Image: BBC) The BBC delayed announcing news that Britons had voted for Brexit until political chiefs were completely certain of the results, David Dimbleby has said. The legendary broadcaster said he was aware the votes were following a trajectory predicted by detailed analyses, and the outcome was clear before the BBC allowed the broadcast. He claimed he was held back from making the announcement on June 23 despite the increasing clarity that the results heavily favoured the leave vote. Speaking to the News Agents podcast, he said the “fastidious” broadcasters wanted to wait until it was “absolutely impossible for it to be wrong”. And he revealed that his landmark speech announcing the result was made up on the spot, despite the extensive preparation that had gone into their calculation. Mr Dimbleby said that BBC is “very fastidious about any results of a democratic vote”, and that election specialist John Curtice “wouldn’t allow us to say for certainty” despite it being “perfectly obvious what was happening”. He added that he was pleading with the director to announce the outcome during the early hours of June 23. He said: ‘I kept talking from the thing to the director saying ‘Can’t we say it now, come on, it’s four in the morning for God’s sake, it’s perfectly obvious what’s happening?’ ”No, no, just hang on, just hang on’.’ The broadcaster also criticised the accusation that his eventual announcement ‘produced a moment of finality’. Mr Dimbleby famously revealed the results at 4.40am on the day, declaring that the UK had reversed its decision to join the Common Market after “weeks and months of argument and dispute and all the rest of it”. He resolutely concluded his speech by saying: ‘The British people have spoken and the answer is: ‘We’re out’.’ Now – more than seven years after the vote – Mr Dimbleby would appear correct to say his words didn’t indicate the UK’s exit was over. Earlier this week, ministers delayed the imposition of post- Brexit checks and charges on food imported from the EU, the fifth of its kind. The delay came with the Government’s acknowledgement that the additional charges and red tape would add 0.2 percent to inflation and creates a new introduction date of the end of April 2024.