Don't cut BBC Parliament, Bercow urges corporation

John Bercow has criticised the BBC’s plans to scale back coverage on its parliamentary channel, arguing that it will result in a loss of focus on crucial Brexit debates during the “biggest constitutional upheaval” in a generation.

The Commons Speaker has shared fears that the BBC eventually wants to scrap the channel, which attracts an audience of 600,000 a week, as it struggles to make financial savings.

In a letter seen by the Guardian, he called on the BBC’s director general, Tony Hall, to reverse plans to remove original programming from the channel, warning that they could result in it being stripped back to just live footage of the Commons and Lords.

He also raised concerns that the measures, designed to help save £1.9m, could end in coverage of parliament moving almost wholly online and therefore excluding the elderly, low-income households and those who had poor broadband connections.

In his letter to Hall and the BBC’s director of news and current affairs, Fran Unsworth, Bercow wrote: “I am very concerned that these proposals will result in a loss of focus on parliament, at a time when the country is going through the biggest constitutional upheaval in a generation – but one which has ignited public interest in politics.”

The BBC announced in July that it was making changes to its political and parliamentary coverage to focus more on digital output as well as to make substantial savings. It has to save £800m overall by the end of this licence fee period in 2022.

It has already stopped broadcasting Sunday Politics and has replaced Daily Politics with a new show, Politics Live. While it will continue to broadcast live and replayed coverage of parliament and devolved legislatures, it will not air when they are not sitting. It also means there will no more bespoke programme or coverage of party conferences.

Hall told the Commons culture committee last week that he wanted to see the daily and weekly programmes that look back on what has happened in parliament continue. He added: “I also think we should be looking at other ways in which we can attract people to what parliament is doing.”

But in his letter to the BBC, the Speaker said: “I would like to be reassured that the plan to remove all other original programming from the channel – including lectures, studio programmes and films – and reduce it to a bare feed of chambers and committees, is now also under review.

“I also seek to understand better the strategic vision for the channel. Is it, as hinted in the initial announcement to the press, to be abolished as a broadcast channel at some point in the next few years? I do not think that reliance on online distribution in any way matches our shared ambition for public access to the work of parliament.”

Bercow asked Hall and Unsworth to meet him for talks on the issue. The BBC director general said last week that he was considering different options to make the savings. “But don’t read into that, necessarily, something that we intend to do.”

A spokesperson from the BBC said: “We’ve received the letter and will respond in due course.”