Ukip has pledged to scrap the BBC licence fee amid fury over the Corporation’s alleged anti-Brexit “bias”.

The party will compare the TV license to Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax as it questions why poorer households must pay the £147 annual charge.

The change will save the average family £400 a year by around 2020, Ukip figures will argue as they declare it is “time to axe the TV tax”.

However critics will jump on the suggestion that people could instead be forced to pay to watch BBC television through subscription or endure advertising.

That would be a major change for the broadcaster, which has remained free to view and without adverts for generations.