Politics

Boris Johnson at war with Dominic Cummings over plan to scrap BBC licence fee


BORIS Johnson is at war with his senior aide Dominic Cummings over plans to scrap the BBC licence fee.

According to The Times, The Prime Minister favours “reform rather than revolution”, whereas the controversial Mr Cummings wants to get rid of it outright.

 Boris Johnson is at odds with Dominic Cummings

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Boris Johnson is at odds with Dominic CummingsCredit: Getty Images – Getty

An ally of Mr Johnson said: “The PM is not as gung ho on the licence fee as Dom.

“With Dom it’s ideological — he believes the licence fee should be scrapped. With the PM it’s more reform than revolution.”

Another government source said Mr Johnson was personally “cool” on the idea of scrapping the licence fee.

The BBC’s charter is set for renewal in 2027, but the licence fee seemingly safe from the controversial adviser until then.

Mr Johnson appears to be backed in the spat by culture minister John Whittingdale, who was appointed last week to oversee reforms to the state funded broadcaster.

He insisted moving to a Netflix style subscription model was “politically utterly impossible”.

The culture minister said in an interview the day before he was appointed that the only way to move to a subscription system would be to “turn off Freeview and move it all online”.

He added: “There are large parts of the country that haven’t got broadband or indeed choose not to pay for it.

“You are turning round to all those households that don’t have fast broadband and saying, ‘You can’t get the BBC any more.’ Politically that would be utterly impossible.

“It is just not possible to make the BBC a voluntary subscription service for as long as it is broadcast on Freeview. We are some way off being able to switch off Freeview and put it all online.”

 Dominic Cummings is said to be desperate to scrap the licence fee

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Dominic Cummings is said to be desperate to scrap the licence fee

A Downing Street source denied the rift, and insisted they were focusing on a consultation over decriminalising not having a licence.

It comes as Tory MP Robert Halfon called for a referendum on the BBC’s future.

He said: “Rather than it be decided by the great and the good, let the licence-fee payer take back control, to use a famous phrase.”

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