Nothing appears too valuable in British life that cannot be wrecked to save Boris Johnson’s premiership
On Sunday, Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, tweeted that the BBC licence fee will be abolished in 2027 and broadcaster’s funding frozen for the next two years. The licence fee is the guarantor of the BBC’s financial independence and underpins its unique quality. Doing away with the funding stream without warning and with no replacement in sight in advance of a mid-charter review revealed Ms Dorries’ true intentions. The backlash to her peremptory threat was enough for her to back down. It was hard not to believe the reason the BBC was being sacrificed was to distract attention away from accusations that the prime minister lied over illegal Downing Street parties. Nothing appears too valuable in British life that cannot be wrecked to save Boris Johnson’s premiership.
The BBC has not got off lightly: Ms Dorries confirmed she intends to keep the fee flat at £159 for a colour licence until April 2024, which will mean a severe real-terms cut to the corporation’s funding. The negotiations between Ms Dorries and the BBC to agree a settlement had not been conducted transparently or appropriately. This is ominous. The Tories have long used the BBC as a punchbag. But under Mr Johnson the “Brexit-Bashing Corporation” is key to drawing up cultural dividing lines rather than economic ones. The longer-term threat to get rid of the licence fee has not gone away. Linking the BBC’s mid-charter review, and implicitly the fate of the licence fee, with the “impartiality” of a broadcaster’s editorial output makes ministers sound more like tinpot tyrants than respectable democrats.
