Keir Starmer rallied behind the BBC on Monday, despite growing calls to scrap the licence fee.

Downing Street pushed back against claims by Donald Trump that the corporation’s ‘corrupt’ journalists are peddling ‘100 per cent fake news’.

And the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the case for retaining the BBC was ‘stronger than ever’.

Senior opposition figures on Monday warned that the disastrous lapse in standards that triggered the resignation of director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness had raised questions about the future of the licence fee.

Nigel Farage said the corporation was ‘in the last-chance saloon’ and a Reform government would ‘defund the BBC from its current funding model’, with most of its output moved to a subscription basis.

Kemi Badenoch said the BBC could justify continuing with a licence fee only if it could demonstrate it had changed to become truly impartial. 

The Tory leader added: ‘The new leadership must now deliver genuine reform of the culture of the BBC, top to bottom – because it should not expect the public to keep funding it through a compulsory licence fee unless it can finally demonstrate true impartiality.’

Mrs Badenoch said the BBC was a ‘treasured institution’ but needed to embrace impartiality and show ‘a bit of humility’ to survive.

Director-general Tim Davie quit the BBC on Sunday after five years in the corporation’s top job 

She added: ‘We need to start looking at who is joining the BBC and whether they actually understand what impartiality is. This is not an issue of Left or Right – understanding that facts need to be true is a critical reform we need to see within the BBC.’

Former PM Liz Truss and former home secretary Suella Braverman both called for the licence fee to be scrapped immediately.

Downing Street confirmed that the future funding of the BBC would be considered next year as part of a scheduled review of the corporation’s charter.

But the PM’s spokesman said Sir Keir wanted to see the BBC ‘continue to prosper, supported by a sustainable funding model’.

Asked about the crisis gripping the corporation, the spokesman said Mr Davie and Ms Turness were right to ‘take responsibility for mistakes the BBC admits it has made’.

‘It is right we now continue to support the BBC as an important national institution and manage the transition,’ he said.

The spokesman added: ‘Let’s be clear about this, we support a strong, independent BBC and in an age of disinformation the argument for a robust, impartial British news service is stronger than ever. It’s important that trust is maintained and that errors are corrected.’

Downing Street said the BBC was right to admit ‘mistakes’ over the editing of a Donald Trump speech, which has enraged the US President. But the PM’s spokesman rejected wider criticism of the corporation by Mr Trump.

Donald Trump on Sunday condemned the ‘corrupt’ BBC as he tore into director-general Tim Davie and the corporation. He has threatened to sue for $1billion

Deborah Turness (pictured in October 2022), the CEO of News, has also resigned following criticism that the BBC documentary misled viewers

Under current government rules the licence fee is expected to rise by 3.8 per cent next year to just over £181, although No 10 said on Monday no formal decision had been made. Mr Farage said: ‘The BBC has been institutionally biased for decades.’

He cited areas including its coverage of Europe, immigration, climate change and Gaza as well as its reporting on Mr Trump. The Reform UK leader said the US President asked him in a phone conversation on Friday: ‘Is this how you treat your best ally?’

Mr Farage claimed that half a million people had stopped paying for a TV licence in each of the past two years.

He warned: ‘If the BBC doesn’t now get a grip… what you’ll see over the next couple of years are many, many millions just refusing, just not wanting to have the licence fee.’ He said the current licence fee arrangement ‘cannot survive, it is wholly unsustainable’ and that if the BBC cannot do ‘straight news’, then it has ‘no future at all’.

Writing in the Daily Mail at the weekend, Boris Johnson said he would stop paying his licence fee until he had received a ‘convincing explanation’ for the latest bias scandal.

Tory MP Ben Spencer said the licence fee should be ditched immediately, adding: ‘Forced purchasing of content through the licence fee, with no consumer choice, is an analogue anachronism in the digital age.’