GB News host Andrew Pierce has slammed the BBC in a conversation with Tory MP Bob Seely.
Speaking on this morning's show, the MP for the Isle of Wight said that he "despairs" of the broadcaster and feels that he "couldn't vote for the extension of the TV licence because the the BBC has to speak for everybody or it speaks for nobody."
It comes as the government has set out reforms to help bolster public confidence in the BBC's impartiality and complaints system, including boosting the oversight of regulator Ofcom.
The reforms, announced as part of the BBC mid-term review, would give media regulator Ofcom more powers over the BBC's online services, including its news website and YouTube channel.
Bob Seely said he "despairs" of the BBC
GBNews
Talking to Bev Turner and Andrew Pierce, Seely said: " I slightly despair at the BBC. Look to me, I remember when I was a junior foreign reporter back in the 90s and I was in the Soviet Union.
"Whenever I saw a BBC satellite dish at a story I was doing in some God-forsaken part of the Soviet Union, I was really happy to see it.
"Because it meant that the Times would want more copy from me and also because you were really proud that the BBC was British.
"I think that the BBC has really lost its way. It's stopped being a service that is curious about the world, especially its news. It's become sort of lecturing.
They slammed the BBC
Getty
"It must make this point in diversity and that point in diversity, you just wonder if maybe they spent less time lecturing us on Black Lives Matter and maybe doing more time investigating the Post Office scandal.
"Real stories could actually be picked up and real scandals could have been investigated rather better than they have been.
"The BBC, it lectures us in its comedy, it lectures us in its drama and it lectures us in its news and that's not the purpose of the BBC."
Pierce then said: "The papers are reporting also today three and a half thousand people are being prosecuted sometimes every week, every month for not paying their TV licence.
"You're not a criminal, Bob. In my view, if you don't pay your TV licence, there's got to be another way?"
Andrew Pierce also said it shouldn't be "criminal to not pay" TV licence
GBNews
The Tory MP responded: "This is a difficult one. I would love to support the TV licence. At the moment I'm not sure I could ever bring myself to vote for the extension of the TV licence because the BBC has to speak for everybody or it speaks for nobody.
"And the problem is everyone who's Conservative thinks the BBC is failing and everyone on the left of British politics thinks the BBC is great.
"And that for me indicates that the BBC is on one side of the political argument and not on the other side."
He added: "Right now I wouldn't be voting sadly for the BBC licence fee because the BBC has to prove that it's for everybody and not just one segment with one voice.
"And it really does speak for urban elites. I agree with a lot of what your viewers are saying."
