Channel 4 sell-off ‘will undermine PM’s promise to level up country’

Northern business chief says privatisation plan could be open to legal challenges

Government plans to privatise Channel 4 are wide open to being challenged in court because they would undermine Boris Johnson's commitment to levelling up" the country, the head of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership has said.

Henri Murison, director of the NPP, whose chair is former Tory chancellor George Osborne, said on Saturday two bills to be announced for the next session of parliament in this week's Queen's speech - one on the privatisation proposals, and another requiring that all government policies contribute to levelling up" - were completely at loggerheads and utterly incoherent".