Sir Keir Starmer labelled the licence fee freeze amid a war of words between the Government and the BBC “a bad step in democracy”.
“I think the BBC does a good job of holding us all to account, and they ask us questions that are really tough… and quite right too,” Sir Keir told LBC.
“What happens is there’s rule-breaking and then – this is typical of this Prime Minister, what do you do next? Have I faced questions I’d rather not face, of course I have. Have I then gone out and moaned about it and said anyone else is biased, no of course I haven’t. You face the questions, whether you think they’re fair or not.
“This is saying to the BBC ‘we don’t like your coverage of us and we’re going to threaten you financially as a result’. This is a very bad step in a democracy. Face the music, the Government’s got answers, go out and give those answers to the BBC.”
Sir Keir highlighted that “the headlines aren’t going to be very nice” for the Government in the wake of the Downing Street party revelations, amid criticism of a montage on Newsnight in some newspaper reports at the weekend.
