Nigel Farage has urged British MPs to follow the lead of the French and abolish the dreaded TV licence fee that funds the BBC.
The French National Assembly backed President Emmanuel Macron’s government bill to eliminate the fee that funds 85 percent of France Televisions, France 24, Arte, and Radio France.
The move in Paris comes as the new Conservative Prime Minister – Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak – will face enormous pressure to abolish the licence fee in the United Kingdom as well.
Conservative MPs and campaigners have been pressing for an end to the television tax amid concerns that the BBC has a leftwing, anti-Brexit, woke bias and that the funding model is outdated for the modern media market.
Following the French National Assembly’s decision, Mr Farage took to Twitter to congratulate them.
“The French Parliament has voted to abolish the 80-year-old TV licence fee,” he said. If only ours had the courage.”
The new legislation was proposed by newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron in order to fulfil campaign promises that included several measures aimed at “increasing the purchasing power of French households.”
He saw abolishing the antiquated TV licence model – a tax on households – as a way to help low-income households deal with the cost of living crisis.
In the United Kingdom, scores of people, mostly women from low-income families, have been imprisoned for failing to pay the BBC TV licence, which funds millionaire celebrities’ seven- and six-figure salaries, such as football highlights presenter Gary Lineker.
The campaign group Defund the BBC has led efforts in the UK to abolish the licence fee. “This is one of the rare occasions when Britain should follow France’s example and abolish the TV Licence Fee,” Rebecca Ryan, Campaign Director of Defund the BBC, said.
Members of the House of Lords, on the other hand, are attempting to force all British taxpayers to pay more for the BBC.
In a recent report, a Lords committee on the future of the licence fee, which included former BBC Director General Lord Hall and members paid by the Corporation, proposed replacing the licence fee with a household tax even if people did not own a television.