BBC told to reveal cost of after-show parties

By BEN GLAZE
Published on 22/11/2012 01:54

THE BBC should reveal the cost of after-show parties for hit programmes like Strictly Come Dancing, MPs have heard.

Conservative MP Alun Cairns called on the corporation to come clean about how much licence-fee payers’ money it spends on entertaining top stars.The Vale of Glamorgan MP said viewers needed answers when public bodies were being forced to cut their costs.

He told the Commons: “One constituent asked me how much money is being spent on after-show parties, be it after a successful series, or even after every episode of Strictly Come Dancing, or similar programmes.”

Mr Cairns also queried the BBC’s spending on advertising “when it already reaches nearly all the population”.

He added: “It’s not that these activities are necessarily wrong, but the public has a right to know how much they cost.”