Nigel Farage calls for BBC licence fee to be scrapped in his ‘contract with the people’

Farage said there was a need for “big political and institutional reform” in the wake of the EU referendum vote.

“The BBC has been a very important part of our national life. In the days when there were only three television channels it was clearly very important,” he told LBC radio.

“The younger generation, they don’t watch television they way that you and I did growing up. They choose what they watch, they pay for what they want to watch.

“Frankly, the idea that we should all be paying £150 a year as a tax to keep the BBC going in its current form is just an anachronism. We shall propose today that the licence fee is phased out over time.”

In his speech outlining the manifesto he acknowledged they were not seeking election as the next government, he said they were committing to achieving the Brexit which people voted for in the 2016 referendum.

“A clean-break Brexit can shape the future of our economy and society,” he said.

“It will give us the freedom to shape our future by taking immediate control of our own laws, borders, money, fishing and defence.”

His policy document calls for:

– Scrapping the BBC licence fee

– Allowing citizens to call referendums if five million people agree

– Abolishing inheritance tax

– Investing £2.5 billion in fishing and coastal communities

– Giving businesses zero-rate corporation tax for the first £10,000 of pre-tax profits

– Abolishing privatisation in the NHS

– Establishing 24-hour GP surgeries

While the Brexit Party is not standing candidates in Conservative-held constituencies, Farage said it was important they took seats to ensure the Tories did not backtrack on their commitments.

“We need the Brexit Party to hold Boris Johnson to his word,” he said.

“We need the Brexit Party voice there in the House of Commons or we’re not going to get anything like what we voted for three-and-a-half years ago.”