Sir David Attenborough has said that many people in the UK are “fed up” with the European Union.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the naturalist and broadcaster said the EU may not have paid enough attention to what people care about and has allowed itself to do things that irritate people.

While some people in South America and Africa “are faced with hideous problems, meanwhile we are occupied with these silly squabbles about Brexit”, he added.

“I think that the irritation of the ways in which the European community has interfered with people’s lives on silly levels or silly issues has irritated a lot of people who don’t actually understand what the advantages and the disadvantages are,” he told the paper.

“They’re just fed up with somebody over there who doesn’t speak their language, telling him how much money they’ve got to charge for tomatoes or something silly.”

Asked if he was more of a Brexiteer than a Remainer, Sir David said he believed “there had to be a change, one way or another”.

He said people were becoming “enraged” and that he hoped people remembered “the lunacy that overtook Europe” in the Second World War.

Sir David added that he thought the political system has got itself into an “absurd” mess.

He was asked if he voted for or against Brexit, but would not say.