Addressing the Society of Editors’ annual conference in London, Theresa May attacked the broadcaster’s ability to subsidise its online coverage with the licence fee. And Mrs May warned the “might of the BBC” could ultimately impact on “local democracy”. The Home Secretary said local newspapers were having “a particularly hard time”. She went on: “That’s partly been the result of the BBC’s dominant position on the internet and its ability to subsidise the provision of internet news using the licence fee. This makes it enormously difficult for local newspapers to compete. If the BBC can, as they do, provide all the locally significant news, what is left to motivate the local media to buy a paper? “It’s destroying local newspapers and could eventually happen to national newspapers as well.” Mrs May said she had held discussions with her local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, about the impact of the BBC locally and the importance of having an “alternative local news source”. “This is as dangerous for local politics as it is for local journalism,” she said. “Because as a local MP I value the ability to raise issues in my constituency in my local newspaper but also I value its role in disseminating information about what I and local councillors are doing in the area.” She added: “This is a debate that won’t go away and I believe the BBC has to think carefully about its presence locally and the impact it has on local democracy.” Mrs May said she believed “a plurality of news sources is essential to our democracy”. She warned that if newspapers are forced to close down, the country could be left with a single source of information. She went on: “No single source of news can possibly represent the variety of opinion that there is in this country and a monopoly news provider would be far too easily captured by special interests. So competition in the provision of news is essential to democracy and diminishing competition is dangerous to the health of democratic politics. “That’s why it’s important that the internet does not have the effect of making a plurality of newspapers commercially impossible.” Mrs May is the second senior Tory to draw attention to BBC’s role in recent weeks following controversial comments by party chairman Grant Shapps.