Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has vowed not to ‘police’ the BBC and to protect the future of the corporation as she laid out her stall in her first week in the role.
After 14 years of an increasingly hostile Conservative government, the BBC has received so far warm words from Labour since the party was elected on 5 June.
Prime minister Keir Starmer said last week “There’s going to be some more thought” between now and the end of the current licence fee arrangement on 31 December 2027, adding: “We are committed to the BBC and we are committed to the licensing arrangements.”
Nandy told The Rest is Politics podcast that she is a “big supporter” of the BBC and public service broadcasting as a whole.
“It’s incredibly important that politicians set the framework right but don’t stray into trying to lecture people on what content can be produced,” said Nandy, who is also MP for Wigan.
“Whether it’s the BBC or the Daily Mail, it’s not my job to do that, and you’ll see a very different approach from us in government around that. Getting the framework right is important to me but trying to police what is said or not said is completely inappropriate.”
While broadly a supporter of the licence fee, Nandy told Radio 4 last week that she would “work with the widest range of stakeholders, including the public, to secure a future in which the BBC can “continue to thrive and do its vital work”.
Nandy has already visited Media City to meet director general Tim Davie and to discuss children’s TV, dropping in on fellow Wigan celebrity Hacker T Dog [main picture].
She has also indicated that she will focus on tackling the decline of local and regional newspapers and radio.
The Manchester-born MP, whose parents both worked for Granada, said: “I don’t know where that pipeline is any more for young people from constituencies like mine, and I want to change that because who tells the story determines what the story is and what gets reported.”
