Tory MPs Urge Boris Johnson To Drop Plans For Channel 4 Sale: ‘It Isn’t Broke, Doesn’t Need Fixing’
deadline.comA group of the UK’s senior Conservative Party politicians has written to the Prime Minister, expressing grave concerns about the prospect of selling off public broadcaster Channel 4 and writing, “Channel 4 isn’t broke, and doesn’t need fixing.”In the letter sent to Boris Johnson on Sunday, the members of parliament, including former culture secretary Karen Bradley, two former ministers and chair of the foreign affairs select committee Tom Tugendhat, urged the Prime Minister to drop any plans to privatise the channel.
They wrote that Channel 4 remained “self-sufficient and successful, making no drain on the public purse”, saying a case for this action had not been made and requesting that ministers now “leave it alone”.
They added that the move to privatise the broadcaster would run counter to Margaret Thatcher’s founding vision, explaining, “Margaret Thatcher created Channel 4 as a publicly owned, non-profit public sector broadcaster that would act as an incubator for independent, risk-taking, innovative private sector companies.
She had a vision to level up the broadcasting landscape and she succeeded spectacularly well. We should maintain her legacy, not put it at risk.”Thatcher was the British Prime Minister when the channel was launched in 1982, becoming the UK’s fourth linear TV channel.
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