The Tories are preparing to scrap the BBC licence fee – Boris Johnson already admitted it months ago

Nicky Morgan will leave the cabinet, and the choice of her successor will provide yet another clue to the prime minister’s intentions, writes Andrew Grice

Morgan argues that the broadcasting landscape has changed (AFP/Getty)

For a man who supposedly wants the country to “come together” after leaving the EU, Boris Johnson seems strangely keen to keep picking fights, as if the Brexit referendum or election had not yet been won.

After a skirmish with Brussels on the trade talks, sacking the president of the COP26 climate summit and an attempt to divide and rule Westminster journalists, today we have a more traditional Tory attack on the BBC. (The judges will be along in a minute, with plans to clip the Supreme Court’s wings). Welcome to the permanent, Trump-like populist campaign. Architect: Dominic Cummings.

Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary, fired the opening shot in the government’s attempt to demolish the case for the £154.50-a-year licence fee. Officially, her speech to the Policy Exchange think tank was about plans to decriminalise non-payment of the fee. Officially, she launched an eight-week “consultation exercise” on this. But the government has already decided the outcome. It is not asking an independent reviewer to assess the evidence because, when it tried that in 2015, David Perry QC opposed decriminalisation.