Boris Johnson ‘is planning to sell off Channel 4’ after boycotting the ‘left-wing’ broadcaster

Boris Johnson is planning to sell off Channel 4 after boycotting the ‘left-wing’ broadcaster, senior Tory MPs have claimed.

The prime minister has refused to appear on the broadcaster since its head of news Dorothy Byrne said he was ‘a proven liar’ at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August.

It has been alleged the channel could become more like Fox News following the sale, as Britain’s broadcast media ‘is so biased to the left’.

Boris Johnson, pictured outside Number 10 on February 5, has privately confirmed plans to sell Channel 4 following deterioration in relations between the broadcaster and Downing Street 

‘Boris Johnson has privately confirmed that he will definitely privatise Channel 4,’ a Conservative MP told the Sunday Express. ‘He thinks it’s a great idea.’ 

Shipley MP Philip Davies, who sits on the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, said: ‘I’ve been arguing for years it should be sold off.’

Channel 4’s relationship with Downing Street has been in the deep freeze since the prime minister cancelled a planned interview with the broadcaster at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, in August, following Ms Byrne’s claims.

Mr Johnson also cancelled a planned interview with the channel at the Tory party conference in October, and snubbed their political debate on climate change in November.

The prime minister was replaced by an ice sculpture at the debate, which gradually melted throughout proceedings.

The Prime Minister was replaced by an ice sculpture at its climate debate in November after he refused to attend but sent Michael Gove in his place

Dorothy Byrne, head of news at Channel 4, at the Edinburgh TV Festival last year

Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, had turned up to take Mr Johnson’s place but was refused access by the broadcaster. Nigel Farage also refused to attend.

Channel 4’s editor, Ben de Pear, later took to Twitter to accuse the prime minister of behaving like Donald Trump. 

‘Put your leader Boris Johnson alongside the other leaders and stop playing games,’ he tweeted. ‘Don’t refuse and then threaten our license it’s a slippery slope.’

They were also forced to cancel their general election debate, ahead of the election in December, after Boris Johnson refused to appear. 

The broadcaster has also had to apologise to Mr Johnson after it tweeted he said ‘people of colour’ on the campaign trail. The prime minister had actually said ‘people of talent’.

Conservative MPs have previously accused the channel of pursuing a political agenda.

The Prime Minister has also been warring with the BBC, and refusing to come onto its flagship Radio 4 programme Today. He has also raised questions about the licence fee

The channel, which is the home of popular TV programmes including the Great British Bake Off, saw its ratings slump last year as the number of its programmes in the top 100 watched dropped by a fifth.

It had an average of 1.61 per cent of its programmes in the top 100 each week in 2018, which fell to just 1.27 per cent last year.

The prime minister’s decision to freeze out Channel 4 comes as he also puts pressure on the BBC, after accusing the publicly-owned broadcaster of left-wing bias.

Mr Johnson has refused to appear on Radio 4’s Today programme and Newsnight.

He has also launched an attack on its licence fee, threatening to de-criminalise non-payment and turn the British national broadcaster into a Netflix subscription service.

A Number ten source was also quoted by The Times this month saying the BBC could be forced to dump most of its radio stations in a massive ‘pruning back’ of its journalism.

MailOnline has contacted Channel 4 for comment.