Shadow culture secretary Maria Eagle has accused her opposite number John Whittingdale of “bullying” the BBC over Europe.
In a far-reaching defence of the BBC, Eagle said on Tuesday that Whittingdale had “very clearly sought to undermine the independence of the BBC” as part of a government that had an “ideological dislike” of the comporation.
“He has bullied the corporation over its editorial line on Europe, and continued his habit of dictating to the BBC what content it should and should not be commissioning,” she told the Voice of the Listener and Viewer conference in London.
Last June Whittingdale, who has since come out in support of the campaign to leave the EU, wrote to the chair of the BBC Trust saying it must be impartial in covering the referendum and act quickly to tackle complaints about “erroneous views”. The letter was part of an effort to remind broadcasters and regulator Ofcom about how rules on impartiality should apply to TV coverage.
The BBC has insisted that negotiations over its new charter, which are being overseen by Whittingdale, will not influence its coverage of the referendum.
Eagle also criticised the government over reports earlier this week that it is considering forcing the BBC to sell off its stake in UKTV, the commercial broadcaster it jointly owns with US network Scripps through its commercial arm BBC Worldwide.
Eagle said: “It is just not on for the government to undermine the commercial activity the BBC undertakes to keep the TV licence cost down. A forced sale of this stake would be a huge blow to the corporation, given that it provides about a third of BBC Worldwide’s profits.
“What possible good can it do to strip the BBC of its commercial profits?”
Throughout her speech, Eagle repeatedly referred to research showing most of the public are broadly supportive of the BBC, including a YouGov survey that showed 62% of over-60s were “suspicious” of the government’s plans for the corporation.
She also said Labour was “utterly opposed” to reported proposals to “top-slice” the licence fee to fund programming at other broadcasters.
“This is something ministers promised they would not do, and something the BBC had been led to believe was off the table following the funding agreement last year,: she said. “It is also something I have said we are utterly opposed to.”
Eagle added that it was “not acceptable” for the government to appoint the majority of a new BBC board and its chair, as Whittingdale has suggested.
She added: “With the BBC’s independence under real risk from this government, I believe that the chair of a new board must be appointed through a demonstrably independent process, not subject to more Tory fixes.”
Eagle also queried whether Ofcom would be ready to take on the regulatory duties of the BBC when the new royal charter begins on 1 January 2017.
The government-commissioned Clementi report, published last month, recommended that the BBC Trust should be abolished and its regulatory role taken over by Ofcom.
She said: “It looks to me very much that [the government] will ask Ofcom to do the job. I think that is tough, I really do.
“It would double the size of Ofcom overnight, and BBC regulation has some similarities but it is different also.”
Eagle said the BBC received 10 times the volume of complaints dealt with by Ofcom.
“We certainly need a guarantee that Ofcom will get proper resources to do this job properly,” she added. “If they have that kind of challenge and have to start it by January next year, that is very, very difficult.”
