Yahoo News Ukip pledge to scrap licence fee to punish 'biased' BBC
Ukip has pledged to scrap the BBC licence fee amid fury over the Corporation’s alleged anti-Brexit “bias”.
The party will compare the TV license to Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax as it questions why poorer households must pay the £147 annual charge.
The change will save the average family £400 a year by around 2020, Ukip figures will argue as they declare it is “time to axe the TV tax”.
However critics will jump on the suggestion that people could instead be forced to pay to watch BBC television through subscription or endure advertising.
That would be a major change for the broadcaster, which has remained free to view and without adverts for generations.
It came as Paul Nuttall, the Ukip leader, announced he would be standing for election in Boston and Skegness, a pro-Brexit seat in Lincolnshire.
The region recorded one of the highest votes for leaving the European Union at last year’s referendum, with 75.6 per cent of voters in Boston backing Brexit.
Asked if he can win, Mr Nuttall said: "Who knows? There's six weeks to go in this campaign, the Conservative MP campaigned to remain during the referendum … We'll be giving it a good go."
Ukip will this week unveil a new set of election manifesto pledges as they seek to win back voters after a drop in support since the Brexit result.
Patrick O’Flynn, the Ukip economic spokesman, said: “There are three key reasons why the TV licence has had its day.
"The first is technological advance meaning the very idea of charging people a poll tax to be able to watch a screen has become obsolete in the era of Amazon, Netflix and online streaming.
“The second is that prosecutions for non-payment are taking up huge amounts of court time and criminalising many otherwise law-abiding people who are simply strapped for cash. Single mothers are particularly badly hit.
“The third and for me clinching reason is the BBC’s record of political bias, whether over Brexit, the debate over mass immigration, climate change, penal policy, the US Presidential election coverage or a host of other issues.”
“We are living in polarised political times and the BBC has simply failed to adapt and failed to be self-critical.”
The party will also be promising to scrap green taxes and levies and abolish VAT on women’s sanitary products and hot takeaway meals such as fish and chips.
The BBC has repeatedly rejected claims of bias over its European coverage.
Tony Hall, the BBC director general, said earlier this year: “We go to great lengths to ensure that we balance our coverage and address all issues from a wide range of different perspectives. It is one of the reasons why the public trusts the BBC more than any other source of news.
He added: “It is more important than ever that the BBC’s journalism is independent of political pressure.”
