‘Scrap the TV licence’
TORY MP SAYS PROSECUTIONS FOR NON-PAYMENT ARE ‘NATIONAL DISGRACE’
DEWSBURY MP Mark Eastwood has called for the BBC licence fee to be scrapped in favour of a subscription service.
The MP for Dewsbury, Mirfield, Kirkburton and Denby Dale said the move would “give the people of this country the choice they deserve”.
Mr Eastwood was speaking on Monday at the Petitions Committee, and while he began by confessing to enjoying some programmes shown on the BBC, the Conservative MP argued “it’s all about choice”.
Media Minister John Whittingdale has said the rise of streaming rivals and a fall in the number of young people tuning into the BBC has led to the licence fee becoming harder to justify.
But he insisted it remained the best way to fund the BBC until at least the end of the current Royal Charter, in 2027.
It comes as a petition to revoke the licence fee “as soon as possible” garnered more than 110,000 signatures - leading to the topic being debated at parliament.
Mark Eastwood said: “We live in a modern age where we have the ability to choose from a multitude of channels on subscription. We all have a choice if we want to pay for these channels.
“With the BBC, we don’t get the choice, and are forced to pay for the TV licence regardless of whether we watch it or not.
“In the new era of broadcasting and subscription services, the requirement to have to pay for a licence is becoming ever more obsolete.”
And he said it was a “national disgrace” that people could be subject to criminal proceedings if they do not pay the licence fee.
Mr Eastwood added: “In 2019, there were around 115,000 convictions for non-payment of the licence fee. Nearly 74 per cent of those were women - often single mothers struggling to pay the bills.
“And now the over 75s run the risk of prosecution.
“Non-payment of the fine even carries the risk of imprisonment. It is absurd that we clog our courts and make criminals out of people daring to watch television without a licence.
“If the BBC is truly a national treasure, then surely it would thrive as a subscription channel or by financing itself through commercial advertising.”