UK would be 'crazy' to throw BBC away, says new culture secretary

The BBC is an “an institution to be cherished”, according to the newly appointed culture secretary in a climbdown from some of the government briefing against the broadcaster in recent weeks.

Oliver Dowden, who is overseeing the consultation on whether to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, will warn that the UK would be “crazy to throw [the BBC] away” but suggested the corporation had failed to reflect recent social movements such as Brexit.

He will warn that the BBC needs to better reflect the views of people outside London, suggesting it needs to do more to report on the country with “genuine impartiality” and have “genuine diversity of thought and experience”.

Dowden will also nod to recent research suggesting trust in commercial TV news providers such as Sky News and CNN is marginally higher than trust in the BBC: “Ultimately, if people don’t perceive impartiality, then they won’t believe what they see and read and they’ll feel it is not relevant to them. In an age of fake news and self-reinforcing algorithms, the need for genuine impartiality is greater than ever.”

While many Labour politicians and supporters have claimed that the BBC was biased against their party during the last general election campaign, some Conservative backers and Brexit supporters complained to the BBC about supposed leftwing bias.

Following a number of rows during the election campaign, officials in Downing Street made clear their intention to reduce the scale of the BBC and review the role of other public service broadcasters, such as Channel 4. The prime minister’s lead aide, Dominic Cummings, has made no secret of his desire to cut the BBC down to size but others are less convinced by the desire to attack a leading British institution, whose television and radio stations are particularly popular with older members of the public who tend to vote Conservative.

Last month, the Sunday Times reported a briefing by a leading No 10 figure proposing the ultimate abolition of the licence fee, only for the report to be knocked back the following day by allies of the prime minister, Boris Johnson.

Dowden, who will make his first public comments on the broadcaster at a media conference hosted by Deloitte and Enders Analysis, will also use his speech to say the BBC’s output failed to reflect recent change in the country, implying it missed the forces behind Brexit.

He will say: “If we’re honest, some of our biggest institutions missed, or were slow to pick up, key political and social trends in recent years. The BBC needs to be closer to, and understand the perspectives of, the whole of the United Kingdom and avoid providing a narrow urban outlook.”