David Cameron’s suprise announcement that the Tories would save licence fee payers £3 a year will be met with suspicion and derision by BBC executives.

Since the proposal was not presented as part of a strategic Conservative plan to preserve the BBC’s future while ensuring it does not obliterate struggling commercial rivals, many will see it as merely a populist gesture.

As much as Mr Cameron would like it, the £68 million that the Conservatives hope to lop off the licence fee will not come out of the generous pay packets enjoyed by the corporation’s top brass.

Nor will it mean that the BBC will scale back productions such as Friday’s record-breaking Comic Relief appeal, watched by 13 million viewers, or the Strictly Come Dancing budget.

The areas most likely to suffer are those where small cuts are felt the most - a reporter less on the Radio 4 Today programme or Newsnight, repeats replacing an edgy new comedy series which can no longer be “green-lit”.

Mr Cameron justified the freeze as a correction of “an unbalance” which could leave the BBC with far more resources than ITV and Channel 4. The freeze could become permanent, in a deflationary environment, he warned.

The Tories released a raft of examples of BBC “waste” to accompany the announcement - £13.8 million on taxis, £170,000 on parties to promote BBC One drama series.

The BBC can certainly do more to give its enemies less amunition. But the corporation appears on a collision course with a future Conservative government which is likely to tear up its current governorship arrangements and install a system of independent regulation.

That Mr Cameron, a former Carlton TV employee, feels able to trade off the BBC’s protected funds for the smallest of tax cuts, should make Mark Thompson, the Director General, shudder.

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