Broadcasting
Labour will support the BBC licence fee, Keir Starmer has pledged, in stark contrast to the years of Conservative opposition to the funding model.
For years, the BBC has lived with uncertainty and barely veiled threats about its future from successive Conservative prime ministers dog-whistling to their base,” said Steven Barnett, professor of communications at the University of Westminster. “For Sir Keir to give such an early and unequivocal statement of support for both the BBC as an institution as well its public funding is a huge step forward.”
While Barnett said the public must “wait and see whether this support extends to the level of funding required to keep the BBC as a valued, trusted and universal British institution”, he said the prime minister’s statement of was a “breath of fresh air compared to the last 14 years of deep funding cuts accompanied by barely concealed hostility”.