Free TV Licences: Over-75s Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Eddie Hughes
Main Page: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)Department Debates - View all Eddie Hughes's debates with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Free TV Licences: Over-75s
Eddie Hughes Excerpts(5 years, 5 months ago)
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Jeremy Wright
I was not present at those discussions, but it is very clear, is it not, that if someone wants to know roughly how much the financial obligation they are taking on will be, there are ways in which to establish that. One would assume that the BBC carried out exactly that exercise, and therefore knew what it was taking on when it made the agreement; hence the disappointment that I have expressed today.
Eddie Hughes (Walsall North) (Con)
It appears to me that the elderly, vulnerable people of Willenhall, Bloxwich and Walsall North are being asked to contribute to the £1.75 million salary of Gary Lineker, which does not seem particularly fair. Does the Secretary of State agree?
Jeremy Wright
My hon. Friend has heard me say that I think one of the things that the BBC must always have an eye on is the need to control salary levels, which, as he says, the people who are licence fee payers expect to be within sensible bounds. I know he will recognise that one of the reasons we know these things is the transparency that the Government have brought about, and that is a good thing, but I think he has made an interesting and fair point.