BBC denies wasting money on too many weather forecasters amid calls to scrap licence fee

Senior figures at Broadcasting House claimed the company employed about 24 full-time weather presenters.

The BBC also dismissed suggestions that it employs a total of 45 such presenters across both TV and radio.

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At least half of them were used as emergency cover for sickness or holiday absences.

A source told The Telegraph: "Reports that the BBC employs 45 weather presenters is about as accurate as Michael Fish when he dismissed the hurricane in the 1980s. It is completely wrong."

The insider was making a reference to a former forecaster's comments about the Great Storm of 1987.

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The BBC, which revealed it does not tend to provide staffing numbers, said it employed about half the number that was being claimed in reports.

A social media row kickstarted the debate on the number of weather forecasters employed by the BBC.

One user asked: "Why does the BBC have so many weather presenters?

"We have the national, regional and then superfluous ones on in the evening."

The TaxPayers’ Alliance later complained that viewers had "had enough of funding bloated broadcasting" and called for the licence fee to be scrapped.

A BBC spokesman said: "We’re always striving to deliver excellent value to the eight out of 10 adults who use BBC News and Weather services each week.

"There are far fewer weather presenters than has been reported, all of whom work across a range of BBC output."