Two senior Tory MPs have warned Downing Street not to pick a fight with the BBC amid reports it wants the broadcaster "massively pruned back".
Huw Merriman, the MP for Bexhill and Battle who is chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on the BBC, warned No 10 against "ramping up an unedifying vendetta" against the BBC, saying the corporation should "not be a target".
"This is not a fight the BBC is picking nor a contest my party promised if we got elected," he wrote in the Daily Telegraph. "If the BBC ends up in decline, it will be the government which will be accused by the very people we will rely on for support at the next election."
Referring to sources quoted in the Sunday Times piece, Damian Green said: "The unattributed source was quoted as saying, 'we're going to have a consultation and then we're going to whack the BBC.' That tells me the consultation isn't a real one and there are legal implications about that." (
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