Esther McVey, a former BBC employee, has called for the licence fee to be scrapped, describing the corporation as a "cesspit of left-wing political bias" that the British public are forced to pay for under the threat of criminal law.
Writing in a column, McVey said the BBC, founded in 1922 by Lord Reith with a mission to inform, educate and entertain, has become "a shadow of its former self" and needs to be "put out of its misery." She noted that it gives her "absolutely no pleasure" to write these words, given her career began at the BBC.
Recent controversies and viewer decline
McVey pointed to a $10 billion defamation lawsuit from the President of the United States over a misleading edit of his Capitol Hill speech, which triggered the double resignation of its Director-General and Chief Executive of News. She said the BBC still refuses to admit it has a bias problem.
Over the weekend, further revelations emerged: taxpayer-funded civil servants have been seconded into BBC newsrooms, "fact checking" and writing articles while masquerading as impartial journalists, and schoolchildren are being exposed to left-wing views on net zero and immigration via the BBC Bitesize platform.
McVey noted that the BBC has plunged to the bottom of the Ofcom league table for impartiality, and that 2.5 million viewers have turned their backs on the station since 2020, preferring to get their news elsewhere.
Internal reviews and cultural concerns
Between 2024 and 2025, three separate internal reviews warned that "perceived political bias" was driving viewers away. Whistleblower Michael Prescott revealed in a leaked memo that "systemic editorial bias" runs deep, with main areas of concern being gender reporting, Britain's history, colonial past, and an anti-Israeli stance.
The Gaza documentary got the BBC sanctioned, and its Arabic station was forced to make 200 factual corrections about its wider coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. The BBC internal inquiry noted that working-class viewers are particularly dissatisfied, finding the BBC "out of touch" and "alienating."
McVey also highlighted former Match of the Day pundit Gary Lineker, on £1.3 million of public money, using the profile the BBC gave him to pontificate about Brexit, Gaza, and Rwanda. She mentioned concerns over two-tier coverage of "Unite the Kingdom" protests and pro-Palestinian marches, and trigger warnings on comedy favourites such as Dad's Army and The Royle Family.
Call to end the licence fee
McVey concluded that the BBC has been "infiltrated and taken over by a left-wing woke metropolitan establishment" and that the public have realised the culture is so ingrained it is never going to change. She said it is time to end the BBC licence fee.
