Ukip pledges to scrap VAT on fish and chips and axe BBC’s TV licence fee to save families £400 a year
Party vow aims to snaffle up Labour votes and end Beeb's 'bias'
UKIP will vow to ditch the TV licence fee and VAT on fish and chips in moves to save the average family £400 a year.
The party’s pledges come this week as it makes a big grab for Labour votes.
Its election manifesto will include ending green taxes and levies, and scrapping VAT on domestic energy bills, take-away meals and women’s sanitary products.
In a major speech, Ukip’s economics spokesman Patrick O’Flynn will declare: “The TV licence has had its day. It is time to axe the TV tax.”
His plan will see the hated £147 fee phased out over three years. It would be cut to £100 in the first year, £50 in the second and eliminated by the third.
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He believes winding down the charge will give BBC bosses time to open talks with the Government over future funding.
The MEP says the Beeb would be allowed to enter the market for subscriptions and advertising as a new source of cash.
He added that the fee has become obsolete in the era of Amazon, Netflix and other online streaming services.
Non-payment prosecutions also take up valuable court time, he said.
But the clinching reason is the BBC’s “record of political bias” over Brexit, immigration, climate change and other issues.
Ukip’s manifesto will include the creation of a public service broadcast fund — financed from taxes — from which all broadcasters could bid for grants.
Mr O’Flynn said: “We are living in polarised political times and the BBC has failed to adapt and failed to be self-critical.”
A BBC spokesman said: “The public supports the licence fee as the best way of funding the BBC and there was overwhelming backing for a strong, independent and licence fee-funded BBC during the Government’s recent consultation.
“The BBC is the news organisation most trusted by the public - it was widely acknowledged that the BBC covered the EU referendum campaign impartially and we have continued to do so since, just as we will with the general election."