England rugby legend and sports pundit Brian Moore and TV presenter Andrew Neil are having a row over Brexit on Twitter. The latter wrote an article headlined "Remainers bemoan the state of Brexit Britain, but it's the EU that's staring into the abyss" which attracted a comment from one reader accusing him of "staggering arrogance".
Mr Neil calls out the sliding euro and how the EU is in the "grip of stagflation" as he sets out why Europe unity is "fraying - and not just at the edges". In reply, Mr Neil retorted: "The staggering arrogance is you thinking you know how I voted in the referendum. You don’t even know if I voted at all."
At that point Brian Moore waded in on the debate and asked outright: "Which way did you vote then?" And so began an increasingly ugly exchange over Twitter with Mr Neil saying it was none of his business as to which way he voted.
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It got personal: "So you don't think as a political commentator should declare your vote on this important issue, so that we can take a view on whether your comments are affected by your personal views - not very transparent," said Mr Moore, who has become a vocal critic of Brexit since the UK crashed out of the EU.
Mr Neil, chairman of the Spectator and former chairman of GB news, retorted: "How I vote — if I vote at all — has no bearing on what I write." The political commentator still presents The Andrew Neil Show on Channel Four.
Mr Moore, a remain voter, was unprepared to let it go: "How can we be sure? You wrote all manner of things about the MSM when you helped create GB News. Since you left after a couple of weeks and are now back on the outlets you criticised we can judge you were writing bollocks - see how it works?"
Mr Neil's final retort to the football legend was: "If you don’t trust me to give honest and independent opinions don’t read me. Probably a relief for both of us." He also adds a cheeky reply to a follower who asks: "Who is Brian Moore anyway and why has he been given a verification by Twitter?"
Mr Neil replied: "Good question. No idea who he is. Maybe he’ll tell us. But he's not very transparent."
It's Mr Moore who has the last word though, just after midnight on Saturday night, as he finishes with: "You bitch about people making assumptions regarding your politics and then refuse to take a simple step to remove any ambiguity. That's your choice but you should stop moaning about it and calling people arrogant for doing something you could prevent, but won't."
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