'Big fan': Pete Wishart says independent Scotland should keep BBC

AN SNP veteran has said an independent Scotland should keep the BBC, insisting it is the “envy” of the world.

Pete Wishart, the party’s longest-serving MP, described himself as a “big fan” of the state broadcaster when speaking to the Planet Holyrood podcast and said it should operate as a “shared” service if Scotland leaves the UK in the future.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the referendum, Wishart has recently released a book called Inside the Indyref – a collection of diary entries from his time campaigning for independence in 2014.

The future of the BBC was a major talking point during the referendum and the state broadcaster was accused repeatedly of displaying a pro-Union bias.

In 2015, Alex Salmond launched an outspoken attack on the BBC and its then-political editor Nick Robinson for the corporation’s coverage of the referendum, calling it a “disgrace”.

The Scottish Government’s independence white paper – entitled Scotland’s Future – backed a “new publicly funded, public service broadcaster”, but Wishart was opposed to the idea.

“I had spent a lot of time as a DCMS [culture] spokesperson dealing with issues like broadcasting,” he said.

“My view is it should have been a shared service and that is what I made clear.

Alex Salmond has previously been scathing about the BBC's coverage of the independence referendum “Had we done anything else we would have been susceptible to the claim that Scottish viewers wouldn’t be able to get the programmes they want, what they were used to.”

Reflecting on the fact the BBC was a “hot” topic during the campaign, he added: “I felt just to resolve that and get it out the way that we should continue to have a shared BBC.

“I am somebody who is a big fan of the BBC and BBC Scotland operates pretty effectively as a standalone service.”

Asked if it remained his view that an independent Scotland should share the BBC, he said: “Absolutely. I think if we were to do this again that would be what I would be advocating”.

“There is something distinctive and specific about the BBC that is good and which is the envy of the world.”

Wishart – who described himself as British as well as Scottish and a royalist – also spoke about how the Yes campaign “disastrously” failed to win over older people who had strong feelings of British identity.

He said the different parts of Britain had built up a “reservoir" of “cultural attachment”, adding: “We should have done more to build a case that we were going to continue to share that.”

Asked whether he feels British, he replied: “Yes, absolutely.”