EXPERTS accused MPs of bowing to commercial broadcasters’ lobbying yesterday after they told the BBC it should “reduce” its content and called for the licence fee to be scrapped.

University of Westminster Professor Steve Barnett issued his stark warning following the release of a Commons culture, media and sport committee report on the state broadcaster.

Its Tory chair, John Whittingdale, a former aide of privatisation-obsessed prime minister Margaret Thatcher, said that the licence fee model was “becoming harder and harder to justify and sustain.”