‘It’s absolutely plain!’ Ex-BBC boss accuses Boris of using TV licence to calm partygate

Boris Johnson criticised over proposed BBC licence fee freeze

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The next announcement about the BBC licence fee “will be the last”, the Culture Secretary has said. The annual payment, which normally changes on April 1 each year, is expected to be kept at the current rate of £159 until April 2024. But former BBC Executive Professor Tim Luckhurst has claimed Boris Johnson is using the licence fee as a way to gain popularity from his backbenches following the partygate scandal.

Speaking to LBC, Professor Luckhurst said: “I don’t question for a second the extent to which there have always been some tensions between the BBC and the current Conservative party.

“That’s an established reality.

“But equally it is absolutely plain that this is about the Prime Minister throwing red meat to the backbenches at a time when he himself is in enormous political difficulty for reasons which I have to say have a great deal more to do with Boris Johnson’s own conduct than they have to do with the BBC or any other organisation has done.

“I don’t think it’s a great way to make a decision, I really don’t.”

Nadine Dorries indicated she wanted to find a new funding model for the BBC after the current licence fee funding deal expires in 2027.

She wrote on Twitter: “This licence fee announcement will be the last.

“The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors are over.

“Time now to discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.”

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The licence fee is set by the Government, which announced in 2016 that it would rise in line with inflation for five years from April 1 2017.

The BBC has previously come under fire over the abolition of free TV licences for all over-75s, with a grace period on payment because of the Covid-19 pandemic having ended on July 31.

Only those who receive pension credit do not have to pay the annual sum.

A BBC source told the Sunday Times: “There are very good reasons for investing in what the BBC can do for the British public and the creative industries, and the (profile of the) UK around the world.

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“Anything less than inflation would put unacceptable pressure on the BBC finances after years of cuts.”

The BBC declined to comment.

It comes as divisions in the Conservative Party over the “partygate” scandal and Boris Johnson’s future as leader are bursting into the open, with some taking up the cudgels for the Prime Minister and others claiming his position is now untenable.

A fully fledged Tory Party civil war seems to have erupted, as anger over a series of leaks about alleged lockdown parties in Number 10 are engulfing Mr Johnson’s premiership.

Six Conservative MPs have called for the Prime Minister to quit so far, arguing that a change of senior officials would not reverse the “terminal damage” done to Mr Johnson by the allegations.

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