Huw Edwards scandal shows it's time to scrap the BBC licence fee, says Nigel Farage
The national broadcaster has become scandal central, and it's time to stop forcing citizens to fund this woke, left-wing empire.
The Huw Edwards scandal marks a tipping point for the BBC. The corporation knew in November 2023 that he had been arrested over child abuse imagery offences yet continued paying his £475,000 salary (including a £40,000 pay rise) until April 2024. Although the full facts of this morally squalid arrangement have not been explained, this case shows that, yet again, something has gone very wrong at our national broadcaster.
Not that the BBC struggled to find the money to pay Edwards, who is also entitled to a £300,000-a-year pension for the rest of his life. Its ancient financing model, the TV licence fee, gives it a guaranteed annual income of more than £3 billion. Like any heiress or trust fund kid, the BBC just picks up its entitlement with no questions asked.
Every TV-owning household must stump up £169.50 and it all goes straight to “Auntie”. Those who don’t comply risk a prison sentence. This system has created an extremely unhealthy mindset at the top of the BBC, where bosses can spend public money with abandon and standards are not kept in check.
The Huw Edwards affair on its own is bad enough. But over the past 15 years the BBC has become scandal central. Do you remember the ‘Sachsgate’ incident, when Radio 2 broadcast pre-recorded obscene phone calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to the elderly actor Andrew Sachs? Or the Jimmy Savile outrage, when two BBC journalists were blocked by BBC bosses from broadcasting details of Savile’s sex abuse on Newsnight?
What about the millions of pounds given to outgoing BBC executives in severance payments? Or Martin Bashir lying to secure an interview with Diana, Princess of Wales? Last year the BBC falsely claimed my bank account had been closed because I had insufficient funds. The truth was that I had been de-banked for political reasons. More recently, there have been worrying allegations about Strictly Come Dancing. I could go on.
It’s no wonder the BBC’s income has fallen by 30 per cent in a decade. The latest BBC annual report, published in July, shows 500,000 licence fees were cancelled in the previous 12 months alone.
But it’s not just the scandals that are to blame. Many people simply have no interest in the BBC’s offerings and watch streaming services only. Others have switched off to avoid politically biased programmes hosted by left-wing presenters. And then there are those who have tuned out because they’re furious that much-loved radio presenters like Ken Bruce have been taken off air, supposedly because they are too old.
Under Boris Johnson, the Conservative government talked about abolishing the licence fee but then chickened out. The BBC has until 2027 to reach a new funding agreement with the Labour government. They will be hoping for yet more of your money.
Sir Keir Starmer is a BBC fan and he may yet sanction this request. If he has any political instincts, however, he will realise that the Rubicon has been crossed. It’s time to stop forcing citizens to fund this woke, left-wing empire.
