The BBC licence fee is set to increase by £13 next year, prompting angry Tory MPs to call on the Government to cancel the rise. The fee is due to go up in line with inflation in April 2024 after a two-year freeze.
The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) this week forecast that the inflation figure used would be 8.2pc. This means the BBC licence fee will rise from £159 to £172 – the biggest increase in more than 20 years, Leicestershire Live reports.
However, there is pressure on Government ministers to intervene and cancel the inflation-linked increase. Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP who as culture secretary signed off the freeze until 2024, called for no further increases in the licence fee until changes to BBC funding are considered.
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The licence fee figures have emerged in the wake of the row over BBC impartiality sparked by football presenter Gary Lineker's tweets. Some Conservative MPs have demanded that the fee be scrapped altogether.
A Culture Department spokesman told the Telegraph: “We agreed to a fair settlement with the BBC that will see the licence fee remain at £159 until 2024 to protect licence fee payers from current inflationary pressures, and then rise in line with inflation until the end of 2027. The exact level of inflation is yet to be confirmed.
“The BBC's funding model faces major challenges due to changes in the way people consume media. This is why we are working with it to look at ways to ensure it is sustainable in the long-term.”
On Tuesday, a culture minister claimed the BBC licence fee is losing support among the public. Conservative frontbencher Julia Lopez also noted that the corporation’s impartiality is important in relation to the future of the licence fee.
Her remarks came as DUP MP Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) criticised the BBC’s handling of Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker over his comments on Twitter about the Government’s immigration policy. Mr Wilson told the House of Commons: “The only disaster this weekend has been for the BBC in the despicable way it handled the Gary Lineker affair and then caved in to this man and his friends who rallied around him.”
He added: “The BBC has shown once again it’s impossible, because of the bias inherent in it, to be impartial and it is now time that people are no longer forced to finance the BBC through the licence fee, especially when every week 1,000 people are taken to court by the BBC – 70% of them women – for refusing to pay this poll tax on propaganda.”
Ms Lopez said: “(Mr Wilson) is right to highlight the importance of impartiality to the trust in which licence fee-payers hold the organisation and the importance in relation to the future of the licence fee.
“It’s something we’re considering, not least because there are fewer people paying the licence fee. We’re concerned the public is losing support for the licence fee, but also fundamentally the way in which people consume television is changing very rapidly and we need to make sure the BBC has a future that is sustainable in the years ahead.”
Conservative MP Scott Benton (Blackpool South) said: “The self-inflicted chaos of the last few days in their apparent unwillingness to enforce their own impartiality rules has frankly made a laughing stock of the BBC. It is clear that it is now grossly overpaid sports presenters rather than executives who are truly calling the shots.
“Many of my constituents have long regarded the BBC licence fee as a regressive, decades-old, out-of-date tax. Isn’t it time we had a grown-up conversation about its future?”
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