Today presenter Humphrys admits BBC has shown liberal bias

The BBC has been “broadly liberal”, not balanced on issues such as Europe and immigration and “grotesquely over-managed”, its own presenter John Humphrys has said.

Humphrys said he had voted for “most political parties,” but admitted: “The BBC has tended over the years to be broadly liberal as opposed to broadly conservative for all sorts of perfectly understandable reasons.

“The sort of people we’ve recruited – the best and the brightest – tended to come from universities and backgrounds where they’re more likely to hold broadly liberal views than conservative.”

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He said the corporation had made mistakes in the way it covered Europe and immigration but added that the BBC was now more balanced.

“We weren’t sufficiently sceptical – that’s the most accurate phrase – of the pro-European case. We bought into the European ideal,” he said.

“We weren’t sufficiently sceptical about the pro-immigration argument. We didn’t look at the potential negatives with sufficient rigour.

“I think we’re out of that now. I think we have changed.”

Humphrys said more needed to be done to cut down on excessive BBC management.

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“There are too many of them. I think they think that. I think (director-general) Tony Hall thinks that – I don’t know, I haven’t asked him, but I think he thinks that,” he added.

“Over the years we’ve been grotesquely over-managed, there’s no question.

“They’re now getting a grip on it. A lot have gone. I think more need to go.”

Humphrys said further resources should be devoted to Radio 4 flagship show Today, the “most important BBC programme”, because “we’re as pared down as it’s possible to get” and that the programme needed to recruit more women presenters.