On the edge

The brinkmanship over the Government's contribution to the funding of the World Service shines a light on tensions between Yvette Cooper, Lisa Nandy, Rachel Reeves and their key civil servants. 

Yvette Cooper has previous with Rachel Reeves in taking Home Office funding to the wire last year. But Ms Cooper's current Foreign Office position, a move triggered by insufficient progress on immigration, leaves Ms Cooper weaker within the Labour hierarchy than a year ago. Inside the Foreign Office, 80% of money for the World Service comes from the Overseas Development budget - and a reduction to 0.3% of GDP (from 0.5%) by 2027 has been written into spending plans.  The BBC has been helpfully/unhelpfully suggested that more could come from John Healey's Defence budget. 

Over at the Culture Department, the BBC's long-term ambition is to get the Government to fund the whole of World Service; last year the BBC allocated £221m of licence fee income to the World Service. But the BBC has been no global saint in this matter, reducing that figure from a 2020 peak of £261m.  The official DCMS official line is that the Department is 'open-minded' about a funding solution for the World Service from 2027/28. Tim Davie says the Government should be investing £600m/£700m a year. But back at the Treasury, the clear stand is that the BBC can only expect future funding to follow inflation, at the very best; they're unlikely to want to absorb £600m from direct taxation. 

The daft thing is that if there is a cut to come, the BBC will have to spend more on the process of getting people out of the door over the financial year than usually necessary.