The BBC has a "cultural leaning to the left" and needs to work on its impartiality, a Tory minister has claimed.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said the BBC did things that were not "right and proper" for a public broadcaster, saying the problems were not confined to current affairs programmes but also affected entertainment shows.
He said: "I think there's still an inclination to cover issues in a way that is very much about the culture of a slightly left-leaning, metropolitan group of people who are disproportionately represented there."
The BBC has come under fire from senior Tories over the way it has reported benefits cuts and recently insisted a description of an "incoherent" Mayor of London in Sherlock was not an attack on Boris Johnson.
In an interview with The House magazine Mr Grayling said: "There is still a cultural view within the BBC, not just within current affairs. To some extent it's less with current affairs than within general entertainment, the throwaway lines in a drama which still suggest that actually the BBC's got some way to go before it really to my mind fulfils the role it has to be a genuinely dispassionate public service broadcaster."
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