Culture secretary plays down reports BBC critics were offered top jobs

Oliver Dowden declines to confirm reports PM has offered Charles Moore and Paul Dacre BBC and Ofcom roles

• Hardline BBC critics reportedly offered top media roles

The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has declined to confirm a report that two close allies of Boris Johnson could be parachuted in to head the BBC and Ofcom, but argued that the BBC needed to expand its scope beyond “narrow, metropolitan areas” of the UK.

Dowden said it was too early to comment on the possibility of former Telegraph editor Charles Moore being made BBC chairman, and the ex-editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, becoming head of Ofcom, the media regulator.

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