The extinction of the BBC is a “tempting prospect”, the culture secretary has joked to a group of Conservative students, provoking an angry response from Gary Lineker, the television presenter.
John Whittingdale told Cambridge University’s Conservative Association that he was often “driven insane” by the way the BBC dealt with complaints about impartiality. He also criticised the corporation for treating those in favour of Brexit as “faintly mad”.
Discussing the BBC’s charter, which runs out at the end of next year, Mr Whittingdale said: “If we don’t renew it, it may be that the BBC will cease to exist, which is occasionally a tempting prospect.”
Lineker called the culture secretary a “chump” and tweeted: “The BBC is revered throughout the world. We should be proud of it, not destroy it.”
Mr Whittingdale made the comments last Friday. They were reported by the university’s Varsity student newspaper and by Broadcast magazine.
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The culture secretary reportedly told students that he was in favour of sharing part of the licence fee with other organisations and said: “There is a case for having some plurality, so that the decision as to what programmes are commissioned isn’t exclusively taken by the small group of commissioning editors at the BBC.”
The BBC denied that its coverage of the EU referendum was biased. A spokesman said: “We are committed to reporting on EU issues impartially.”
