Voters will punish Labour if the Government pushes ahead with plans to switch off free terrestrial TV, MPs warned in a letter to the Prime Minister.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is expected to green-light a BBC-backed move to shut down the Freeview service, used in 10 million homes, as viewers shift to internet-only streaming TV.
However, the plans are causing increasing concern among Labour MPs, who fear a backlash from constituents who cannot afford high-speed broadband services to watch TV they currently receive for free.
An open letter to the Prime Minister, seen by The i Paper, signed so far by 17 MPs from all wings of the party, including a close ally of Wes Streeting, warns that pressing ahead with digital switch-off could cost Labour crucial marginal seats at the next election.
“The households who depend most heavily on terrestrial TV are disproportionately older, disproportionately female, disproportionately on lower incomes, and disproportionately in the towns and coastal communities where our majorities are thinnest,” reads the letter, signed by MPs including left-winger Cat Smith and Luke Akehurst, a Keir Starmer loyalist known for his centrist views.
