BBC: Government Role in Impartiality

Lord Robathan Excerpts

Wednesday 15th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord McNally (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Robathan (Con)]

My Lords, does the House not remember those halcyon days—oh, okay. If you want.

[Lord McNally (LD)]

What courtesy from the Conservative Benches—there is hope for them yet. It is our turn; that is why I am standing.

My Lords, the Minister of State, Julia Lopez, made my heart leap yesterday when she told the Commons:

“The BBC is a world-class broadcaster, a creative engine and a cultural institution producing some of the best television and radio in the world.”—[Official Report, Commons, 14/3/23; col. 714.]


She slightly rolled back on that later when addressing some of her Neanderthals by reassuring them that the mid-term review in 2024 would deal with some of their concerns. I wonder: will that mid-term review be just a one-way street of more squeezes on the BBC or will other things be considered, such as the decision to do away with the UK BBC News service? Will it consider the long-term impact of the campaigns run by the Murdoch press, Associated Newspapers and Express Newspapers, all tax-exile owned and all with a massive self-interest in diminishing and attacking the BBC? Will the mid-term review be a genuine two-way street, bringing things back as well as getting rid of them?

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

The terms of reference for the mid-term review were published in May last year, so the noble Lord can consult them. As set out in the charter, the review will consider the governance and regulation of the corporation. As agreed with the BBC, Ofcom and the devolved Administrations, it will consider how the governance and regulation of the BBC delivers the requirement on impartiality in the charter. I hope also to make the noble Lord’s heart glow by associating myself with my honourable friend’s comments.

[Lord Robathan (Con)]

My Lords, does the House not remember those halcyon days of the Blair premiership when not only was Gavyn Davies, a Labour donor, made chairman of the BBC but Greg Dyke, another Labour donor, was made director-general of the BBC? I do not remember everybody talking about impartiality then. Can my noble friend the Minister not only remember that but answer me this: does he think that £1.35 million is worth spending on a single presenter who used to be very good at football?

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

I remember those days. As noble Lords would expect, an organisation as august and that has been around for as long as the BBC draws people from all sorts of backgrounds, political or otherwise. Long may it continue to do so and long may such people continue to discharge their responsibilities impartially. How the BBC decides to spend the money that it gets from licence fee payers is for it to decide and justify to those licence fee payers.