Former political presenter reveals corporation waited until completely sure of the result to announce it to the world
David Dimbleby has revealed the BBC held him back from making his momentous Brexit vote announcement – even after the result became patently clear – before he eventually decided at the last minute how to declare it.
The former political presenter said he had not prepared how he would reveal the historic news, despite knowing which way the referendum had gone for most of the night.
Dimbleby said the BBC had made detailed studies of how voting had to go in each constituency for leave to win, and it became obvious what the outcome was well before his bosses allowed it to be broadcast.
Eventually, Dimbleby annnounced: “Well at 20 minutes to five, we can now say the decision taken in 1975 by this country to join the Common Market has been reversed by this referendum to leave the EU, and that’s the result of this referendum which has been preceded by weeks and months of argument and dispute and all the rest of it.