Licence fee losing support from public, says minister

THE BBC licence fee is losing support among the public, a culture minister said yesterday, as the furore over Gary Lineker’s suspension continued to dog the corporation.

In a sign that the row could have long-lasting repercussions, Julia Lopez stressed the “importance of impartiality” for the BBC if it was to continue being funded by licence fee payers.

Lineker was required to “step back” from presenting Match of the Day after posting on Twitter that the language of Home Office policy on migrants was “not dissimilar to Dame Melanie Dawes that used by Germany in the 30s”.

On Monday, the BBC was forced into a humiliating climbdown and the 62-year-old Lineker was reinstated without need for an apology.

It is understood that Lineker, the former England football captain, has given an undertaking not to post content on social media in breach of BBC rules.

Tim Davie, the BBC’S director-general, has ordered a review of the impartiality guidelines he first introduced in 2020 because of “grey areas”.

Any future breach could lead to further action, it is understood, as the

BBC tries to reassert control over its stars.

In an intervention in the House of Commons, Sammy Wilson, a DUP MP, criticised the BBC and “the despicable way it handled the Gary Lineker affair and then caved in to this man and his friends”, adding: “The BBC has shown once again it’s impossible [to] be impartial and it is now time that people are no longer forced to finance the BBC through the licence fee.”

In response, Ms Lopez said that it was “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.”

She added: “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.”

Support for Lineker appeared to come from Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, whose chief executive said the BBC needed to balance impartiality with “freedom of expression”.

It comes as David Elstein, the former CEO of Channel 5, said in a letter to The

Times that the answer to the BBC’S impartiality problem was for a licence fee-style payment to only fund the BBC’S news and current affairs output.