Johnson & Cummings plan revolution/reform at the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation

Steven Swinford at The Times reports that Boris Johnson is “at odds” with Cummings over the BBC. Johnson is said to prefer “reform rather than revolution”. That comes after a briefing to The Sunday Timesabout swingeing cuts to the BBC and the enforcement of a subscription model – something that is not yet technically viable with Freeview and DAB radio.

While there’s little doubting Cummings’ long-standing animosity towards the BBC, Johnson is hardly considered an ally of the Corporation. Indeed, as with Sunday’s story, this seems like a classic case of briefing an extreme idea to make what will be a major change seem moderate.

Downing Street clearly believes that reforming the BBC is essential to its political programme – as have plenty of radical Tories down the years. And there’s no question that reform is coming. The question is how.

Not only is it technically difficult – with the aforementioned issues of how to put up a paywall for radio – but politically so, too. Radio 2 is popular with Tory voters. And the BBC remains hugely popular with voters, even when they don’t use it.

As the former culture secretary John Whittingdale said yesterday, the supposedly “easier” option of allowing the BBC to run adverts is far from it. It would cause serious problems for ITV and Channel 4.

Cummings and Johnson have been underestimated before, so don’t expect them to fail in their assault on the BBC. But it’ll be a far from straightforward fight.

Front Bench