A SENIOR Tory minister has been accused of "shameless hypocrisy” after she railed against alleged nepotism at the BBC.
Nadine Dorries urged the corporation to be “more accessible” to the wider public, and “not just people whose mum and dad worked there”.
In 2012, it was revealed by the Daily Mirror that the now-Culture Secretary had hired her two daughters in secretarial roles in her private office – at a cost of up to £80,000 in public funds.
Speaking at the Tory conference this week, Dorries warned the BBC may not exist in a decade's time as she took aim at its "elitist" approach and "lack of impartiality".
She insisted she did not want a "war" with the broadcaster but suggested it would have to set out how it will change before the next licence fee settlement, which covers the five years from April 2022.
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At a Conservative Party conference fringe event she admitted "I don't know" if the broadcaster will even survive in 10 years' time in the face of competition from new players such as Netflix.
At an event hosted by the Telegraph's Chopper's Politics podcast, Dorries told the event the path from a poor background to the top of a career in the arts or media had "completely disappeared".
"We’re having a discussion about how the BBC can become more representative of the people who pay the licence fee, and how it can be more accessible to people from all backgrounds, not just people whose mum and dad worked there,” she said.
The Conservative minister continued: "People I went to school with, from my background – I borrowed shoes to go to school, and people I went to school, who had done exactly the same thing – one of them went on to be Cher's music producer, another one went on to be a very well-known TV broadcaster.
"People from my background wrote books, wrote theatre plays and did really well.
"If you want to do that today you need a double-barrelled name, you need to have gone to a private or a public school or your mum needs to know someone, or your dad needs to know someone, or you need to have a connection at the BBC."
Asked how to address that, Dorries added: "It's not about quotas, it's just about having a more fair approach and a less elitist and a less snobbish approach as to who works for you."
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Several high-profile BBC employees responded with derision.
Mock the Week host Dara Ó Briain accused the Culture Secretary of “shameless hypocrisy”.
The BBC's annual report shows more than than 60% of staff went to state-run schools, with 11.5% from a fee-paying school.
Some 8.4% went to "other" schools, 4.2% preferred not to say and there was no data for 15.3% of staff.
Among the 80% of staff who gave details of their background, 48.3% had "professional" parents, 20.2% were "working class" or from "lower socio-economic" groups and 8.8% were from an "intermediate" family.
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