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John Whittingdale: Scrapping licence fee is “politically impossible”

Prime Minister reportedly favours "reform rather than revolution"

Scrapping the BBC licence fee would be “politically impossible,” according to culture minister John Whittingdale.

According to The Times, Boris Johnson favours “reform rather than revolution”, putting him at odds with senior aide Dominic Cummings who wants to get rid of the licence fee altogether.

Whittingdale was appointed last week to oversee the reforms, following the launch of a consultation into licence fee evasion.

The culture minister said: “There are large parts of the country that haven’t got broadband or indeed choose not to pay for it.

“You are turning round to all those households that don’t have fast broadband and saying, ‘You can’t get the BBC any more.’ Politically that would be utterly impossible.

“It is just not possible to make the BBC a voluntary subscription service for as long as it is broadcast on Freeview. We are some way off being able to switch off Freeview and put it all online,” he added.