8 Wednesday January 19 2022 | the times
News
A cabinet minister has accused the
culture secretary of blindsiding col-
leagues by announcing plans to freeze
the BBC licence fee without proper
consultation within government.
Thérèse Coffey, the work and pen-
sions secretary, is understood to have
raised concerns about the rushed
nature of Nadine Dorries’s announce-
ment of the two-year freeze, which was
brought forward by Downing Street as
political pressure on the prime minister
intensified.
Coffey is understood to have told the
cabinet that the implications of freez-
ing the licence fee on BBC program-
ming and budgets should have had
more thought and discussion.
Her complaint was rejected by
Dorries, who argued that the decision
was the right one and that a wider dis-
cussion was needed about replacing the
licence fee when the present charter
comes to an end in 2027. Boris Johnson
is said to have backed Dorries, insisting
that proper processes were followed.
Sources close to Coffey did not deny
that she had raised concerns, saying
they reflected her belief in the import-
ance of the BBC.
The BBC’s director-general has
warned that the corporation faces a£285 million funding shortfall as a
result of the freeze in the licence fee and
will “inevitably” be forced to cut pro-
grammes and services.
Asked what programmes could be
cut, Tim Davie told the Toda y pro-
gramme on BBC Radio 4 that “every-
thing’s on the agenda”.
Pressed on the future of BBC4, BBC
and Radio 5 Live, he said: “People,
clearly and rightly, are worried about
what the £285 million cut — in terms of
two years flat — brings, but also, as an
organisation, we need to reshape our-
selves for a digital age.”
Insiders and people close to the BBC
are openly speculating about the de-mise of channels including BBC2 and
BBC4, and a squeeze on big-budget
dramas is expected. Viewers are likely
to be served up more repeats and pro-
grammes acquired from other broad-
casters and streaming services.
Responding to whether he thought
the BBC should take on a subscription
model, Davie said that the “principle of
universality is absolutely the debate
here”. He admitted that there were
times when the subscription model ap-
pealed but that it would affect the cor-
poration’s standing around the world.
“Of course [the BBC] could be a com-
mercial operation, but it will not do
what it does today,” he said. “You aredoing things that are there to make
profit and make a return to a specific
audience. When you think about local
radio, you think about the World Ser-
vice, you think about the radio stations
we operate, we are not operating them
on a commercial model. We’re operat-
ing on a licence-fee model or a univer-
sal model.”
The £159 licence fee will be frozen for
two years from April and then rise with
inflation for the remaining four years of
the charter period. Dorries said it was
right to ease pressure on the “wallets of
hard-working households”.
BBC and a future without the licence
fee, Letters, page 26Oliver Wright, Jake Kanter
Ministers ‘blindsided’ by licence fee freeze
ever, because this was included in the
original bill it could be reversed in the
Commons.
The prime minister’s spokesman said
he was “disappointed” that peers re-
jected measures aimed at combating
the “guerrilla tactics” adopted by pro-
testers and would reflect before return-
ing to the Commons.
“This is something where action
needs to be taken, it’s something the
public want us to deliver on,” the
spokesman added.
Dominic Raab, the justice secretary,
said: “We support the right of peaceful
and rambunctious protest, but it cannot
be allowed to interfere with the lives of
the law-abiding majority.”
Lord Paddick, 63, a former deputy
assistant commissioner in the Metro-
politan Police and a Liberal Democrat
peer, said: “If the government is deter-
mined to bring in these draconian, anti-
democratic laws, reminiscent of Cold
War eastern bloc police states, they
should withdraw them now and intro-
duce them as a separate bill to allow the
democratically elected House time to
properly consider them.”
The defeats came as drumming out-
side parliament by activists opposed to
the Bill could be heard in the chamber.
Cavalier ministers have dented trust
in good reforms, leading article, page 27Patel’s protest crackdown
reforms rejected by peers
Priti Patel’s plan to crack down on
protests that disrupt national infra-
structure was in disarray yesterday
after the House of Lords threw the
measures out.
In a series of late-night votes peers
rejected half a dozen government
amendments to the Police, Crime, Sen-
tencing and Courts Bill. These would
have criminalised protesters who “lock
themselves on” to street furniture to
avoid being moved and made it a crimi-
nal offence to obstruct major transport
works and key national infrastructure.
Another rejected measure would
have allowed courts to ban individuals
with a history of causing serious disrup-
tion from attending certain protests.
The plans were introduced by Patel
as amendments in response to the Insu-
late Britain and Extinction Rebellion
protests in the run up to the Cop26 cli-
mate conference. Because they were in-
troduced in the House of Lords once
the bill had been passed by the Com-
mons they cannot be brought back.
Ministers would have to introduce en-
tirely new legislation if they wanted to
proceed with the additional offences.
Peers also voted down controversial
plans to impose conditions on protest
marches judged to be too loud. How-Oliver Wright Policy EditorProtests outside the parliament — called “a really annoying demo” — could be
heard in the chamber as the Lords rejected multiple government amendmentsGUY BELL/SHUTTERSTOCK