BBC licence fee ‘criminalises people who want to watch television’, Nadine Dorries says

BBC licence fee 'criminalises people who want to watch television', Nadine Dorries saysCredit: Peston/ITV

Transcript

00:00I find it absolutely incredible that in this day and age, people are paying a regressive tax,

00:07whether you live in a mansion or a council house, you're paying the same amount for a licence fee,

00:12which criminalises people who want to watch television.

00:15And of all those people who are criminalised, 74% of them are women.

00:20And I just find it absolutely amazing that we still fund the BBC in this way and it's accepted,

00:26particularly when those young people we were talking about in those polls, they don't watch the BBC.

00:31They gather their news in so many other different places in different ways.

00:35We're in a digital age.

00:37The day of paying everybody, handing over £180 or whatever it is now for a licence fee for the BBC is over.