Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News broke UK broadcasting rules by airing pro-Brexit views on the day of the EU referendum, including accusing the BBC of being like a “running ad for Remain”, Ofcom has said.

Under UK rules broadcasters are not allowed to discuss and analyse election and referendum issues from the point polling starts until they close at 10pm on voting day.



An edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto, a weekday business and financial news programme broadcast at 9pm in the UK and simulcast in the US, that aired on polling day included several discussions of the Brexit vote.

A news item explained the positions of the Remain and Leave camps and said that the polls had the vote outcome at “neck and neck, 50:50” but added that bookmakers were 84% pro-Remain.



However then the 5-minute news item, which aired at 9pm, added: “I mean we are governed by a bunch of bureaucrats that don’t speak English in a funny place called the Hague, which makes no sense at all, and it tells Britain what to do, it takes British money, it doesn’t send much of if it back – it’s a very unfair one-way street when you begin to dig into it and the biggest thing of course is that all of this is all a disguise over the immigration issue.”



At 9.50pm, 10 minutes before the polls closed, there was a further brief news item which included statements including that the BBC was like a “running ad for Remain” and that there was a lot of “establishment pressure” on the public to vote for Remain.



“I don’t know why any Brit, maybe I’m just too much of a Yank, why would any Brit wanna offshore its sovereignty to Brussels?” the news report said. “There is a lot of propaganda out there and usually that type of brainwashing does work. Politicians, moronic celebrities who don’t know anything about trade imbalances, they are waiting on this, the media – the BBC is like a running ad for Remain, and it goes on and on.”



Fox News said the edition of the programme did not “advocate a particular position on the vote”. It added it “presented a summary of the positions others are advocating as to whether the UK should remain an EU member”.



However, Ofcom said that it broke the UK broadcasting rules relating to the “discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues” on polling day.



“Following a careful investigation, we found that Fox News breached broadcasting rules by showing a discussion about the EU referendum while the polls were open on the day of the referendum,” said a spokesman for Ofcom.



Murdoch’s Times called on its readers to back Remain while stablemate the Sun backed Brexit.

