Election 2019: BBC licence could be scrapped, Boris Johnson hints

Boris Johnson has hinted he may scrap the licence fee that funds the BBC during an unscripted question and answer session, while visiting the North East of England.

Asked to scrap the licence fee as a whole, Johnson said he was “under pressure not to extemporise policy on the hoof” but admitted it was something he was looking at.

Speaking in Sunderland, he added: “You have to ask yourself whether that kind of approach towards funding a TV, a media organisation, makes sense in the long term, given the way other organisations manage to fund themselves.”

Going on to describe the licence fee as “a general tax”, Johnson said: “How long can you justify a system whereby everyone who has a TV has to pay to fund a particular set of TV and radio channels?”

This morning the Prime Minister raised questions over the expansion of Heathrow and the HS2 high speed rail link between London and Birmingham.

Previously he inadvertently revealed a Tory government would raise the threshold for National Insurance contributions, a policy which was to be launched as part of the Conservatives manifesto, ahead of time.

Main image: Getty