BBC Politics Live Will Not Go To Party Conferences This Year
BBC Politics Live at the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Brighton (Credit: Alan Keith Beastall / Alamy)
3 min read
The BBC has decided to stop its flagship Politics Live programme from going to party conferences this year, in a move that has disappointed some BBC staff, PoliticsHome understands.
Weekday lunchtime political programme BBC Politics Live puts out special additional editions during the party conference season, providing live coverage of the leader's speeches.
These episodes are usually filmed at the conferences, offering live opinion and analysis from politicians and journalists attending the flagship events in cities around the country such as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.
But PoliticsHome has learnt that, in a BBC cost-cutting measure, the programme will not maintain stands from which to broadcast at party conferences this autumn.
BBC staff concerned by the decision not to host the programme on location believe it will benefit competitors such as GB News, whose increased presence over the BBC could give the impression they are more relevant.
The move comes amid worries over the BBC's financial challenges, with the corporation having seen a 30 per cent real-terms decrease in funding for UK services over the past decade.
The government plans to undertake a review of the funding model starting later this year. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said the licence fee is "unenforceable" and "no options are off the table" in terms of what could replace it.
Reacting to the news about Politics Live, Culture, Media and Sport Committee chair Caroline Dinenage told PoliticsHome: "It’s a surprising move by the BBC, who took over 500 of their staff to Glastonbury!"
Both the broadcaster and the festival apologised after being criticised this year when punk rap duo Bob Vylan led a chant of "death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]" during their performance, which was live-streamed by the BBC.
In a letter to Dinenage following the controversy, BBC director general Tim Davie disclosed that 550 employees were working for the BBC at Glastonbury.
Conservative MP John Whittingdale, a former culture secretary and chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said: "The decision by the BBC not to have [this] presence at the party conferences is a further erosion of their political coverage, which should be a core part of their public service responsibilities. At a time when the charter is coming up for renewal, I hope that the BBC will think again."
A BBC spokesperson said: “Politics Live will continue to broadcast key speeches from party conferences, as well as interview leading political figures and explore a range of issues being debated.
"BBC News will provide extensive coverage including from the Today programme, the World at One and PM, the BBC News channel, Streaming, Newscast, Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live and a team of political correspondents led by political editor Chris Mason and chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman.”
