Government accused of "austerity by the back door" over TV licences plan

The shadow culture secretary and Labour deputy leader has urged ministers to honour a Conservative manifesto pledge to keep TV licences free for pensioners, a benefit which he says "staves off poverty, isolation and loneliness".

Responsibility for funding licences was handed to the BBC in 2015. The corporation has been running a consultation on its future, with one of the options being to scrap the free licences as a cost cutting measure.

Culture Minister Margot James, the MP for Stourbridge, said the decision was part of a "fair deal" for the BBC, adding that it was taken when the country was in "a very difficult fiscal situation".

But Mr Watson said the broadcaster had been put in an "impossible position" by the government, where it would either have to choose between cutting programmes, or to end a benefit for older people.

"This is austerity by the back door," he told those in the Commons.

He described watching television as a "lifeline" to the outside world for many, adding that 4.5 million elderly people "could be betrayed unless the government acts".

The West Bromwich East MP cited new Age UK analysis which said ending the benefit could push 50,000 pensioners into poverty.

The research said 2.2m people aged over-75 live alone, 3.2m have a long standing illness, while 400,000 go a week without meeting up with or speaking on the phone to friends or family.

Mr Watson added: “These new figures show just how isolated and lonely many over 75s can be. It would be a terrible act of state cruelty to take free TV away from these vulnerable people.”

Ms James said the BBC was "a treasured institution" and a "constant companion" for many older people. She said the results of the consultation had not yet been announced, but insisted that the government was taking the issue of loneliness "seriously".

If the benefit is scrapped over-75s will lose out from June 2020. Other options under consideration by the BBC include raising the age for free licences to 80, and means testing.

Wolverhampton South East Labour MP Pat McFadden, who also spoke in the debate, said that 5,600 households in his constituency have an over 75 year old.

"If free TV licences restricted to those on pension credit, 3,300 of these would lose out. The government will own this policy no matter how much they try to blame the BBC."

A licence currently costs £154.50 a year for colour TV.