The cost of the annual television licence fee is set to increase from £154.50 to £157.50, the BBC has announced. The price hike will come into effect on April 1, and will also see the cost of an annual black and white licence rise from £52.00 to £53.00. This comes days after the company announced plans to take the axe to 450 jobs across its organisation to save £80million and after receiving several accusations of “Remainer bias”.

Tory sources were reportedly furious at the BBC’s handling of Brexit day, claiming it showed an in-built left-wing bias among the corporation’s senior managers against Brexit.

One senior Conservative source said: “Only the BBC could have a special programme on Brexit where the studio is emblazoned with EU colours, they refuse to run the Prime Minister’s address, get to Brexit 15 mins in then go to Farage, Widdecombe and a load of Remainers”

There was also anger at what Brexit supporters claim was the disparaging way the BBC and other broadcasters portrayed the celebrations in Parliament Square, with accusations the size of the crowds was underplayed.

Ian Dale, the Conservative commentator and LBC presenter, wrote on Twitter: “How is it that our public service broadcaster refuses to carry any of the Prime Minister’s address to the nation, on a night that is of huge significance to the future of our country?”

As the public outcry continues, a 2014 report by The Independent has resurfaced, in which Nigel Farage reveals what he has envisioned for the future of the BBC.

The Brexit Party leader told a public meeting in Rochester that the broadcaster should be “cut back to the bone” and stop producing popular entertainment programming.

He said he wanted to see the BBC dramatically shrunk and only produce “public service” output – defined by regulator Ofcom as programmes broadcast “for the public benefit”.

The move could see the end of more frivolous entertainment programmes like Doctor Who, Strict Come Dancing, and Top Gear.

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He said: “Do I think the BBC needs to involve itself and engage itself in many other fields of entertainment and sport, given the whole world has changed with cable television and satellite television?

“No.

“I would like to see the BBC cut back to the bone to be purely a public service broadcaster with an international reach, and I would have thought you could do that with a licence fee that was about a third of what it currently is.”

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Examples of public service broadcasting given by Ofcom include “local news coverage, arts programmes and religious broadcasts”.

Mr Farage said he did not want to see the corporation entirely privatised but that the licence fee should be cut to about £50 a year, a two-thirds reduction in income.

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