Culture minister Nadine Dorries told the Commons yesterday that the BBC’s funding would be frozen for the next two years, and confirmed that the “long-term” future of the current licence fee model was in doubt.
Labour’s shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said the announcement – reportedly part of Downing Street’s “Operation Red Meat” moves to please Conservative supporters – was designed “to stop the prime minister becoming dead meat”.
The Labour frontbencher accused Tory ministers of a “long-term vendetta” against the BBC, and said the attack was “a really obvious, pathetic distraction from a prime minister and a government who has run out of road”.
Ms Dorries told MPs that the BBC had asked for the fee to rise to over £180 by the end of the current settlement, but said it will instead be frozen at £159 until April 2024, before rising with inflation for the following four years.
On Sunday the culture secretary had tweeted that this year’s licence fee funding announcement – which takes the BBC up until the end of its current charter in 2027 – “will be the last”.
This story is from the January 18, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the January 18, 2022 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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