News UK owner Rupert Murdoch has described Britain’s exit from the European Union as “wonderful” and a “victory for British democracy yesterday”.
He was speaking at The Times CEO summit in his first public comments on the subject of Brexit.
News UK-owned tabloid The Sun, Britain’s top selling daily, campaigned for Britain to Leave the EU. In the last month of the EU referendum campaign it published 16 front-page stories favouring Leave versus one which was judged by Press Gazette to favour Remain.
Murdoch’s other UK dailies were split on the issue, with The Times endorsing Remain in the final week of the campaign and The Sunday Times backing Leave.
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Murdoch is the executive chairman and controlling shareholder of News Corp, the parent company of News UK.
According to The Times, Murdoch said yesterday: “We made a momentous decision last Thursday. [Brexit was] a bit like a prison break. We’re out!”
He added: “We have got to decide in this country who we are . . . [this] opens up the whole world for us . . . I’m excited about Brexit, how we get through it and the opportunities.”
Murdoch said that be believed former Times journalist Michael Gove has the right qualities to be the next Tory party leader.
He said: “I’d be happy for Michael Gove to get it” describing him as “the most principled and most able” candidate.
Murdoch shrugged off the reaction of the negative reaction of the financial markets to the referendum result. He said: “Markets go up and they go down. This is hugely overdone.”
And he urged British business to embrace the result: “There is a whole world of growth out there.”
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