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Leaver calls for news coverage to be more positive about Brexit
Claire Fox tells Sky News presenter Anna Botting that coverage of Brexit needs to be more positive - Credit: Sky News
A former Brexit Party MEP has called for coverage of Brexit on the television news to be more positive after claiming coverage of the end of the transition period was too "sombre".
Claire Fox, a new peer in the House of Lords, complained about Sky's "funereal" tone throughout programming on December 31.
Fox was asked to speak to Remainers to attempt to bring them on side and explain her "excitement" to those watching at home.
But she replied: "Excitement? Watching this item, I feel like it's the most depressing thing I've ever seen. It deployed a funereal tone throughout.
"This is a moment at which you could at least give credit to the people that after four and a half years of being traduced, called racist, xenophobes, stupid, didn't know what they were voting for, that this could never happen - that at last, it has happened.
"And instead the whole item has been how awful it is. So when you say that I should have to persuade people about why Brexit is a good thing - the thing is we had a referendum, we voted for it.
"There will be hiccups along the way, people will say it's disruptive, but people didn't want the status quo. The status quo was not good enough for millions and millions of people. They wanted change and I think there could be some grace given here, we could celebrate a little bit.
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"Now we're all sombre because of coronavirus but there's no need to sombre because of Brexit, and I'm getting inundated with loads, thousands of people saying 'congratulations we did it', 'can you believe it?', 'it's the little people wot won', 'the establishment never stopped us'.
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"We're not allowed to party but all I'm saying is the mood on this programme might recognise that, for millions of people, this is the equivalent of winning against the giant if you want."
But presenter Anna Botting pointed out that there had already been a "massive celebration" on January 31, and it was "quite hard to replicate that given the pandemic".
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