BIRKENHEAD MP Frank Field last night demanded the abolition of the BBC “as we know it.”

The former minister said that the crisis-hit Corporation should be replaced with a new body solely responsible for “protecting and promoting public service broadcasting.”

His blueprint would mean slashing the current £143 annual licence fee and dumping programmes, including reality TV, aimed at winning a mass audience.

That would mean slimming down to two TV channels and two radio stations from the current multiple outlets chasing a dwindling audience.

The radical proposals are contained in a report: Auntie’s Dying – Long Live Public Service Broadcasting, co-authored by Mr Field and academic David Rees.

Their move followed a series of rows over multi-million-contracts offered to stars such as Jonathan Ross, pay and perks for BBC bosses, allegedly fraudulent programme phone-ins and claims that programme-makers misrepresented the Queen in a documentary.

The authors argued that the BBC is torn between its public broadcasting responsibilities and its pursuit of a mass audience, and compared the licence fee to Mrs Thatcher’s discredited community charge.