If Boris Johnson destroys the BBC he will never be forgiven. Or to put it less bluntly, “If the BBC ends up in decline, it will be the government which will be accused by the very people we will rely on for support at the next election.” Those are the words of Huw Merriman, Tory MP for Bexhill and Battle, and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on the BBC. It is clear he speaks for many colleagues.

A Downing Street source launched the “BBC in peril” scare at the weekend, saying the Johnson Government intended to “whack” the BBC in a variety of ways, not least by transferring its financial base to a subscription model and hence removing it from the public sector to the private. Most of its radio stations would be sold off and its television channels severely reduced, as would its online activity.