Tory leader calls for licence fee freeze

Conservative Party leader David Cameron has called on the government to freeze the TV licence fee for one year.

In remarks made at his monthly press conference, Cameron said the BBC was "one of our most important national institutions" that "plays a vital role in bringing the country together".

He cautioned, however, that the corporation "needs to maintain public support" and that it should "lead by example" by "tightening its belt".

"I am announcing today that we would freeze the BBC licence fee for one year and we will be challenging the government over this in parliament," he said. "That would be an important signal of the need for all public institutions in these difficult economic times to do more with less."

Later in the conference Cameron added that failure to act over the licence fee could result in "an imbalance in that the BBC will have so much more resources" than commercial rivals.