Former BBC chairman slams 'complete lack of reality' over broadcaster's response to licence fee freeze

A former BBC chairman has told corporation bosses to watch their own news bulletins highlighting the cost of living crisis before moaning about a lack of funding.

Lord Grade of Yarmouth claimed there is a “complete lack of reality” about the response from some at the Beeb as he backed the two-year freeze of the “regressive” licence fee.

He said some peers seemed to be suggesting the BBC is “impoverished” by the new settlement, but argued £3.7 billion in 2022 in a crowded market place is a “surprisingly good settlement”.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has announced the licence fee will instead be fixed at £159 until April 2024 before rising with inflation for the following four years.

Speaking in the House of Lords, Conservative peer Lord Grade said: “I wish those at the BBC who asked for more money from the Government would watch their own news bulletins and read and see what is going on in the news bulletins about whether people have to make the decision to heat or eat, the increased use of food banks.

“There is a complete lack of reality about what’s going in Britain with this regressive tax.

“I believe in the BBC, I stand with everybody in this House who supports the BBC, but this is not the time for them to be asking for more money.”

He said Ms Dorries’s decision to start the debate on what people want from the BBC and how it is paid for is a “very good step in the right direction and very timely”.

Culture minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, in his reply, said: “He is right to reinforce that £3.7 billion from licence fee payers this year, at a time when people’s bills and cost of living are rising, is a fair settlement.

“It enables the BBC to continue doing the excellent things that it does, but to do that in a way that shows it understands the way that businesses and households across the country are having to tighten their belts and look to see how they can do what they do more efficiently, and to get more bang for their buck.”

But Labour peer Lord Watson of Invergowrie said of Ms Dorries: “She has a history of attacking the BBC and her appointment to her current post is akin to giving a child the keys to a sweet shop.”

Conservative former cabinet minister Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone advised Ms Dorries to refrain from “commenting on party political bias”.

She said: “That is the job of the party chairman.

“As Secretary of State she is the sponsor for the broadcasting industry and I suggest she leaves criticisms of party political bias to a different authority.”