Sun backs Brexit but Times editor opts to support remain despite Murdoch’s views and divisions among his staff

Senior journalists at the Times were deeply divided ahead of the newspaper’s decision to endorse a vote to stay in the European Union in Saturday’s edition.

The paper’s proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, who is believed to favour Brexit, allowed his editor, John Witherow, a free rein on the editorial line. It is understood that Witherow instructed staff at the start of the campaign that he wanted the news coverage to be balanced, and the comment pages to reflect a range of views on Britain’s membership. But after debates among the staff in recent weeks, which have been described as “heated and intense”, a front-page headline on Saturday’s paper endorsed staying in the EU, saying: “Why remain is best for Britain.”

The Times’s stablemate, the Sun, came out for leaving the EU last week, claiming: “We must set ourselves free from dictatorial Brussels.”

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It is understood that columnists such as Phil Collins, Lord (Danny) Finkelstein and Oliver Kamm had argued to Witherow that the Times should endorse remaining in the EU. Their views are shared by around two-thirds of the newspaper’s readers, according to surveys.

Iain Duncan Smith’s former chief of staff, Tim Montgomerie, who is based in the US for the Times, was passionate for the opposing view. In response to the leading article, he tweeted : “Beautifully written of course, but to believe that the EU is suddenly going to reform defies all experience.”

In a lengthy leading article, the newspaper accused the leave campaign – headed by former Times journalists Michael Gove and Boris Johnson – of promoting a series of untruths, including the suggestion that £350m a week is sent to Brussels. “The leave campaign has not needed to varnish reality but has done so anyway,” the paper said.

It went on: “The Times may once have been regarded as part of the establishment. If so, those times are past.

“We will take a maverick view where logic and the evidence support it. We have considered every aspect of the European argument with the seriousness and scepticism it deserves.

“We respect the arguments of those who would have Britain leave but on balance we believe Britain would be better off leading a renewed drive for reform within the EU rather than starting afresh outside it.”