No 10 criticises BBC after spending licence fee money on Duchess of Sussex’s TV show Suits

No 10 has criticised the BBC after the broadcaster spent licence fee payers’ money on the US series Suits, starring the Duchess of Sussex.

A Downing Street spokesman said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would expect the broadcaster to focus on “homegrown talent”.

The BBC announced that it had acquired Suits, the show in which the Duchess made her name as an actress, and that it plans to broadcast it later this year.

The corporation, which is in the middle of a cost-cutting programme, has not disclosed how much it spent on the series. But earlier this week the head of ITV claimed that the BBC had outbid them for the series, and said it was the wrong use of licence fee money.

Asked whether the BBC should have acquired the series, a No 10 spokesman said: “The BBC is independent, of course, but I think the Prime Minister would expect the BBC to be focused on supporting distinctive and homegrown talent.”

The spokesman added that Downing Street would not comment on individual acquisition decisions by the broadcaster.

Yesterday, Kevin Lygo, ITV’s director of television, said that the BBC could not keep “bleating” about cost-cutting when they were buying “American stuff” such as the Duchess’s programme.

The BBC acquired Suits from NBCUniversal earlier this year and will screen it on television and on iPlayer.

Sue Deeks, the head of BBC programme acquisition, called Suits “smart, stylish [and] star-studded”, saying she was delighted to bring it to BBC viewers.

The Duchess played a paralegal, Rachel Zane, for seven series of the show, joining in 2011, but quit after meeting Prince Harry.

A BBC spokesman said: “Our spend on acquisitions remains very small when compared to our overall budget, where we are the largest producer of originated programmes in the UK.

“Our successes of the past year including 21 RTS Award wins and 44 nominations at the upcoming TV Bafta’s demonstrate we are setting the creative bar high in this industry.

“Overall, we spend less than five percent of our annual content budget on acquired programmes, far less compared with other broadcasters.”