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Theresa May was tonight urged to guarantee free TV licences for the over-75s or risk breaking an election pledge.

The 2017 Tory manifesto promised to “maintain” pensioner benefits, “including free bus passes, eye tests, prescriptions and TV licenses, for the duration of this Parliament”.

But the BBC has thrown the £720million annual commitment into doubt after the Government’s contribution to free TV licences is phased out by 2020.

Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, the Shadow Culture Secretary, has written to the Prime Minister urging her “to offer over-75s reassurance that they will not find themselves hit with austerity by the back door”.

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He adds: “If you fail to do so, responsibility for this broken promise and the removal of this benefit from vulnerable elderly people will lie firmly at your feet.”

Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright faces being challenged over the uncertainty when he appears for a regular grilling from MPs on Thursday.

Director-general Lord Hall warned the corporation could scrap the benefit when it takes responsibility for the scheme within two years.

Asked by MPs in September to guarantee the licences will remain free, Lord Hall said: “I can’t give you a guarantee it will continue.

“The concession, as formulated, comes to an end in June 2020.

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“We have got to decide what will replace it.”

Mrs May refused to stand by her election pledge when she was tackled over the commitment last month.

Insisting it was a decision for the corporation, she told the Commons at Prime Minister's Questions: “The arrangements for the free licences change were part of the last BBC settlement.

“The money is being made available to the BBC and it will take decisions on how it operates on that.”

(Image: Getty)

In his letter to the PM, seen by the Mirror, Mr Watson warns: “For the elderly pensioners who voted for you at the last election in the belief that you would guarantee their free TV licenses until the end of this Parliament, that is 2022, your answer is simply not good enough.

“Many will rightly feel a sense of betrayal that the promise to maintain their benefit stands to be broken.

(Image: PA) (Image: PA)

“By cutting free TV licences from the over-75s you will be asking some of the poorest pensioners to pay an additional £150.50 a year.

“This would be a terrible blow for those who already struggle to make ends meet and particularly to those elderly people who may be housebound or isolated and rely on their TV to stay in touch with the outside world.

“It would also make a mockery of the claim made by you in your conference speech, and by your Chancellor in his Budget speech this week, that ‘austerity is over’.”