Dan Snow endorses Lib Dems over 'profoundly incompetent' Boris Johnson and 'economically illiterate' Jeremy Corbyn

Television presenter laments 'parlous state' of two main parties but praises Jo Swinson and insists Brexit can still be stopped

Television historian Dan Snow has endorsed the Liberal Democrats after calling Boris Johnson "profoundly incompetent" and claiming that Jeremy Corbyn is "economically illiterate".

The BBC presenter said he supported the party's position of opposing Brexit and praised Jo Swinson as "a really engaging, exciting young leader".

Mr Snow described himself as a "floating voter" who has previously voted for several different parties, but said he would be backing the Liberal Democrats on 12 December after deciding that he could not support the Tories or Labour.

The presenter, a supporter of the campaign for a fresh Brexit referendum, said he had met Mr Johnson several times and detected "a woeful lack of preparation and a lack of seriousness".

Speaking to The Independent, he described the Liberal Democrats as "the only realistic alternative" to the two main parties, saying: "I hope they will win. I was hoping they would be rising in the polls, doing better than they are. I'm very sad to see they're not.

"They think Brexit is a bad idea, I think Brexit is a bad idea. I like Jo Swinson - she's a young woman and that's what we need: fewer mad old men running the place."

Mr Snow criticised Mr Corbyn's "profoundly suspect" handling of antisemitism in Labour and his performance during an interview with the BBC's Andrew Neil, where he was pressed on his party's economic policies.

He said: "I just don't think either of the other two party leaders are in any way reliable or trustworthy or of leadership quality. I think that Jeremy Corbyn's handling of antisemitism is profoundly suspect at best.

"I've spent a lot of time with Jewish friends, colleagues and I was at a Jewish Holocaust survivors centre the other day, and they feel profoundly unsettled. It's not for me to tell them not to be, so I listen to what they have to say about that.

"I also find him completely economically illiterate. I'm economically illiterate but I'm hoping my leaders aren't, and I think his economic illiteracy in that interview with Andrew Neil was quite disturbing."

Turning his guns on the Conservatives, he continued: "At the other end of it you've got Boris Johnson, who is just as bad. He's profoundly incompetent...he's lazy, he doesn't know what he's talking about. I've met him a few times in private and he's lazy and doesn't know what he's talking about in private, so I don't want him to be prime minister...

"I've met him at work events and I didn't see effortless superiority - I saw bluster and act to cover up for woeful lack of preparation and lack of seriousness."

Mr Snow defended Ms Swinson in the face of criticism over her performance during the election campaign, which has seen her party slump in the polls. The Liberal Democrat leader has also faced tough questions over her voting record as part of the Coalition Government.

He said: "I think she's a really engaging, exciting young leader with a really complex record to defend, which everybody else has as well. Because she's more conscientious in trying to deal with her record than certainly Johnson and arguably Corbyn, she ends up getting into difficult terrain.

"The nature of being a Westminster MP is you've got to do all sorts of things that you don't necessarily want to and I think that she's been unfairly hammered for that."

He suggested that Ms Swinson has been punished for having made herself available for scrutiny and media interviews rather than "lie and avoid and spread fake news like the Conservative Party or Vote Leave or Donald Trump".

Mr Snow said he thought the Lib Dem leader had also suffered from sexism.

He said: "Our system is riddled with misogyny. People say she doesn't really feel like a leader, but that's because they don't expect leaders to be in their 30's and young women. If we did have women that were in their 30s as leaders then this country might be in a better state and we might not be about to crash out of the EU for no discernible reason."

He added: "I think I've had enough of old men who can quote Latin phrases and went to the right universities. I'm prepared to try something a little bit different and I think's she an exciting candidate. She's also from Scotland which I'm massively keen on because the union is in a dire state and if we elect an English nationalist as prime minister it's going to absolutely smash the union up. Having a young Scottish woman as prime minister could be the thing that absolutely saves this country."

Mr Snow said he believed that Theresa May was also the victim of "appalling misogyny" in relation to her Brexit deal.

He said: "The greatest misogyny that's happened in recorded British history is that Theresa May's deal was roundly derided as useless and a grotesque surrender to the Europeans. Boris Johnson came back with Theresa May's deal but with the backstop guaranteed rather than an option and suddenly it was like the guy is Bismark.

"That was the most appalling misogyny - there's simply no other way of describing it because the deal is almost identical to Theresa May's deal, other than it's lot worse."

Despite polls suggesting that the Conservatives are on course to win a majority on 12 December, Mr Snow insisted that Brexit could still be stopped.

He told supporters of a Final Say vote: "One thing history teaches you is you never give up. Regularly throughout our history the most extraordinary results have been snatched from seemingly hopeless situations, and it is perfectly possible that we will be in a political situation where a second referendum becomes a reality."