'Shabby' Channel 4 Privatisation Plans Split Tories - 06.04.2022, Sputnik International

A rebellion is brewing inside the UK Conservative Party after senior Tory figures rounded on the government over its plans to privatise Channel 4, according to the British newspaper i.

Chair of the Culture Committee Julian Knight, for his part, suggested that the decision to sell off Channel 4 could be ministers' revenge against the publicly-owned broadcaster for its unfriendly political coverage.

"Is this being done for revenge for Channel 4's biased coverage of the likes of Brexit and personal attacks on the PM? The timing of the announcement 7pm, coinciding with Channel 4 news, was very telling […]", Knight tweeted.

He added that "undoubtedly, across much of the party – there is a feeling of payback time and the word privatisation tickles the ivories of many". According to the culture committee chair, "the money is irrelevant – equivalent to four days' national debt interest – so it must be used to support skills in creative sectors".

Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, in turn, argued that the government's announcement on Channel 4's privatisation marked the "opposite of levelling up". She tweeted that the broadcaster is "publicly-owned, not publicly-funded. It doesn't cost the taxpayer a penny".

She was partly echoed by ex-Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt who said he was "uneasy" about the move, adding that the channel "provides competition to the BBC on public service broadcasting, the kinds of programmes that are not commercially viable".

The same tone was struck by Lord Tom McNally, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats. Referring to Channel 4, he told an Urgent Question event in the Lords that he wonders whether the government was "ashamed that this extraordinarily well-run company is being dealt with in this way?"

McNally noted that it was "a shabby decision made in an appalling way while the House of Commons is in recess".

This was shared by Damian Green, a former Conservative cabinet minister, who argued that "the sale of Channel 4 is politicians and civil servants thinking they know more about how to run a business than the people who run it". Green slammed the decision as "very unconservative", adding that "Mrs Thatcher, who created it, never made that mistake", in a nod to the former UK prime minister who founded the channel in 1982.

UK Government Keen to Privatise Channel 4

The critical remarks follow the government announcing on Monday that it will press ahead with plans to privatise Channel 4, allegedly as part of reforms "to modernise and sustain the UK's public service broadcasting sector".

The Independent cited an unnamed source as saying that "ministers have decided that, although C4 as a business is currently performing well, government ownership is holding it back in the face of a rapidly changing and competitive media landscape".

"A change of ownership will remove its straitjacket, giving C4 the freedom to innovate and grow so it can flourish and thrive long into the future and support the whole of the UK creative industries", the source asserted.

A spokesperson for the broadcaster said it was "disappointed" with the decision, but pledged it would "continue to engage" with the government on the process to "ensure that Channel 4 continues to play its unique part in Britain's creative ecology and national life".

"Channel 4 remains legally committed to its unique public-service remit. The focus for the organisation will be on how we can ensure we deliver the remit to both our viewers and the British creative economy across the whole of the UK", the spokesperson added.

C4 is currently owned by the government and receives its funding from advertising. The channel's most popular shows include "The Great British Bake Off", "Gogglebox", "Hollyoaks", and "Big Fat Quiz".