BBC 'needs to be given protection from Farage'

The BBC must be given complete political independence in case Nigel Farage enters government, a former director of news at the broadcaster has said.

- Michael Savage

James Harding, editor-in-chief of the Observer, pointed to Donald Trump's moves to defund publicly backed US media and said it would be "recklessly complacent" to believe something similar could not happen in Britain. He said the BBC's survival was at stake and noted that Reform's most recent manifesto had said the "out-of-touch wasteful BBC is institutionally biased. The TV licence is taxation without representation. We will scrap it."

Harding said: "In other words, the one-time reality TV star who leads Reform has some bracing reality in store for TV. It's recklessly complacent to ignore it. What's happened in the US is, as likely as not, going to happen here. We have to address this now."

His comments come with Reform consistently leading in the polls and fears within Labour and the Conservatives about its rise.

Harding called for a complete overhaul of the BBC's political and financial independence, including the end of a regime under which the corporation enters negotiations over the renewal of its charter every 10 years.