Ian Lavery, Member of Parliament of Wansbeck, has today joined calls for the BBC to reverse its decision to scrap free License Fee’s for over 75 year olds.

The Labour Party MP, who serves on the Shadow Cabinet has also criticised the Government over what he labelled as their ‘shambolic’ handling of the changes to the License Fee access which have been in the pipeline for some time now.

Mr Lavery said; “We have been calling on the Government continually to assess the damage this could cause to older people in our society and these calls have continued to fall on deaf and ignorant ears. This proposal by the BBC should have resulted in the Government stepping in to intervene. Instead, this weak and dysfunctional Tory Government are allowing yet another blow to be dealt against some of our most vulnerable residents in communities across Britain.”

“Figures show that if scrapped 6010 people in Wansbeck will lose their free TV License and if linked to Pension Credit, 3630 people will lose out. There is no way to progress with these unnecessary plans without taking away, what for many older people in a lifeline.”

The Labour Party introduced free License Fees for over 75-year-olds in 2000 under Gordon Brown and Mr Lavery’s comments were echoed by others across the opposition benches in Parliament, with many Members of Parliament calling the inaction by the Conservative Government a ‘national betrayal’ and ‘source of shame’ for the U.K.