Positing that she will “work constructively” to make sure it continues to operate, Debbonaire swung in behind the BBC, the nation’s 100-year-old pubcaster, which has had an up-and-down relationship with the ruling Conservatives over the past decade.She praised “the plurality” of the British broadcasting system and said its existence “cannot be taken for granted.”“There are big decisions to make about the future of public sector broadcasting in the next few years,” she added. “We have to make sure that – together – we are communicating the importance of public sector broadcasting. To our national life, and to our economy. In a year when so many people across the world are going to the polls, when disinformation and the reckless re-writing of history are running rampant, the integrity and impartiality of the news has never felt more important.”Another of Labour’s big manifesto promises has been to forge what it terms a New Deal for Working People. Debbonaire stressed that this will extend to the ailing film and TV freelance workforce, with around two-thirds currently out of work, according to union Bectu.As part of the New Deal, Debbonaire said freelancers will have the right to a written contract and be given health and safety add-ons, blacklisting protections and whistleblower safeguards, while Labour will also “clamp down on late payments.”
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