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Electronic Communications

My right hon. Friend makes an important point. In fact, 50 people at the BBC are paid more than the Prime Minister. I thought that his point about taking care with small sums of money from people who might well not be able to afford an additional rise would be well taken by Labour Members, particularly as the Leader of the House announced today that the licence fee will not be eligible for the additional costs allowance. If any MPs were wavering on this issue, that should completely persuade them to support the motion. We have had a week when many have questioned the very roots of our democracy, and there is a democratic issue at stake in this context too. A free society needs multiple and varied media sources. However excellent the BBC is—I believe that much of what it produces is world class and a credit to the UK—other broadcasters need to be able to flourish as well, and different voices need to be able to be heard, because that is how we provide choice for consumers and engagement for citizens. Conservative Members have always recognised the importance of plurality of provision. It was Conservative Governments who licensed ITV in 1955 and Channel 4 in 1982, unleashed the satellite and cable revolutions of the 1980s, and licensed Channel 5 in 1997. What has the BBC done when faced with all this competition? It has flourished. It is completely false to say that there is a choice between competition and quality. It is because British public service broadcasting is the most competitive in the world that many people think that it is of the highest quality in the world. In order for that to continue, there must be a sensible balance between the revenue that commercial broadcasters are able to raise and what the BBC gets, and many will ask whether that is possible if there is a £1 billion gap between state-funded broadcasters and the rest.