John Humphrys has lifted the lid on the BBC's "institutional liberal bias" and accused the corporation of being out of touch with the nation in his memoir.

The veteran broadcaster, who retired from Radio 4's Today show two days ago, says bosses "badly failed" to read the public's mood on Brexit and "simply could not grasp" why anybody voted Leave.

In an extract published in The Daily Mail on Saturday, he recalled the morning after the referendum, writing: "Leave had won – and this was not what the BBC had expected. Nor what it wanted.

"No nods and smiles when the big bosses appeared. No attempt to pretend that this was anything other than a disaster."

In the book, called A Day Like Today, he adds: "Bosses, almost to a man and woman, could simply not grasp how anyone could have put a cross in the Leave box on the referendum ballot paper.