Former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale MP has criticised Tim Davie amid reports the BBC’s director-general reportedly said it is “truly amazing” they are forcing people to pay the licence fee.

Former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale MP has criticised Tim Davie amid reports the BBC’s director-general reportedly said it is “truly amazing” they are forcing people to pay the licence fee.

Appearing on GB News, Mr Whittingdale said: “What I think is a bit of a shame is whilst he was prepared to say that to his staff in private, that’s not his public message. His public message has been, ‘Oh, we’re subject to this terrible squeeze on our finances, we’re going to have to cut back local radio,’ which I think is a huge mistake.

“One of the things the BBC is really good at is local radio and they should not be removing services in the way they’re proposing. So, what he says in private about how fortunate they are is the direct opposite of what the BBC says to the government, which is you are squeezing us, we can’t afford to go on providing all the services. We haven’t got enough money.”

The MP’s comments come after the director-general of the BBC supposedly said that it is “truly amazing” that the broadcaster is “pulling off” forcing households to pay the licence fee.

When speaking with his staff on Tuesday, Mr Davie supposedly said it was “glorious” that the BBC had “better budgets than some of the commercial operators” and did not “need to make a profit on everything”.

Speaking about the comments, Mr Whittingdale told Philip Davies and Esther McVey: “I think it showed a degree of awareness about the good fortune of the BBC and having a guaranteed source of income, which people are required to pay no matter what the current state of their own finances are. It’s enforced by law. And it means that the BBC doesn’t have to face the same degree of competition and operate in the commercial marketplace. I think he says ‘it’s amazing’ that people are paying, but I suspect that that is changing. We are seeing more and more people, particularly younger people, saying that they aren’t, and that they don’t see the need to pay the licence fee any longer. I’ve always believed that the licence fee cannot continue indefinitely.”