Michael Portillo has warned that the BBC’s licence fee is now sitting on "melting ice", arguing the corporation may only survive by scrapping the model altogether.
Speaking on GB News, he opened the programme by questioning whether the levy, created in 1922 to fund a broadcaster that would "inform, educate and entertain", can still be justified in an era of limitless online content.
With viewers no longer restricted to a single public service broadcaster, Michael asked whether the BBC can realistically maintain impartiality and whether the public still expects it to remain non-partisan.
Joining him on the panel, former Labour adviser Matthew Laza said the corporation remains "an essential part of British society", but insisted it must urgently "get its house in order".
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Michael Portillo said it is time to scrap the license fee
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The conversation followed Donald Trump’s exclusive interview with GB News yesterday, in which he vowed to sue the BBC after it emerged the broadcaster had spliced together footage of two speeches nearly an hour apart, making it appear as if he was inciting violence.
In a world-exclusive interview at the White House, the US President told GB News that he will continue pursuing legal action against the corporation as it is his "obligation".
The lawsuit could indirectly come out of taxpayers' pockets, with Britons paying a license fee to use BBC services.
Michael said: "I should declare my interest too, I do a lot of work for the BBC. I’ve enjoyed it enormously and I support it.
"But I very often think the BBC’s survival is best guaranteed by getting rid of the licence fee. To me, the licence fee is like a receding piece of ice on which this polar bear looks less and less comfortable.
"Fewer young people are paying it, so the money is reducing, and the ethical justification for it is weakening as people have access to countless other outlets.
Michael Laza said that there is a place for the BBC
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"And if you look at what the BBC does, particularly on television, there is not so much now that one would regard as public service.
"There’s less about the arts. There’s not much that someone else wouldn’t make.
"We’ve also been surprised by how the private sector does make difficult and demanding content that people are willing to pay for. So why should the licence fee go on?"
Mr Laza responded: "Because at the moment it’s the best option. I don’t think there’s yet a settled idea of what the alternative should be.
"Some European countries have abolished their licence fees and replaced them with broadband taxes, a few pounds a month on every broadband connection, ring-fenced for public broadcasting.
"I agree with you that the ice is melting, but at the moment, there’s still enough of it, and there isn’t a sufficiently frozen alternative.
"Actually, the number of people paying the licence fee is still high, the percentage has gone down, but because the population has grown, the total number of payers is still enough to sustain it.
"Sustain it we must. But what I want to see is someone running the BBC who genuinely cares about programmes, who cares about the output, and who understands that output inevitably involves political decisions."
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