A BBC presenter launched an impassioned on-air attack against her own employers over its cuts to local radio during her final show.

Sophie Little accused the BBC of being “ableist and ageist” after introducing increased centralised programme-sharing across its network of 39 stations across England.

Sophie, pictured, made the comments while presenting Treasure Quest on BBC Radio Norfolk in a segment that the corporation subsequently deleted from its online archive.

However, the audio of the attack can be found on X.

Speaking to her listeners, Sophie said: “These drastic, sweeping cuts taking place to BBC local radio all across the country are not only detrimental to everyone that enjoys switching on their local station and hearing their favourite shows, and detrimental to the local communities who value it and use it, but actually these cuts are unbelievably unfair to those who need local public service broadcasting the most.

“Those who are lonely and isolated, those who are unable to leave their house or those who are unable to use the internet, or unable to pay for broadband or smart devices.

“Those who not only take joy from the company of a familiar voice coming out of their radio, but who truly rely on it to keep going.

“If you think that sounds dramatic, I wish you could be privy to some of the conversations I’ve had with listeners in recent weeks They’ve reduced me to tears.”

She added: “I believe in the BBC, I believe in all that it stands for. It’s vital and it’s important, but I will say this how I see it.

“I feel the cuts are ableist, ageist and they place economic barriers for some people too – and I feel incredibly nervous to say this, thinking about the many bosses above my head and how this goes against the grain of all of the training I’ve ever had in my 15 years that I’ve been here.

“But I remind myself that this is not their BBC, it is our BBC and like all of our public services it exists to serve you and so it must be scrutinised and held to account to protect its own integrity.”

HTFP has approached the BBC for a response to Sophie’s comments.

Last October, the BBC announced the proposed loss of 139 radio roles, with all existing radio staff having to reapply for their own jobs, and a concurrent investment in local digital journalism to create 131 new jobs.

As a result, all BBC radio stations in England are set to share programming from 2pm onwards on weekdays.

It was also proposed that 18 different regional shows would be broadcast between 2pm and 6pm.

The plans have been repeatedly condemned by regional press industry figures and have led to strikes by BBC journalists.

A BBC spokesperson said: “Part of this programme has been edited since broadcast for editorial reasons and this is made clear on the programme’s BBC Sounds page.”