The BBC is "out of touch" with the public as it buys more copies of the Guardian than any other newspaper, a Conservative MP has said.

Philip Davies said the broadcaster is "single-handedly keeping the Guardian afloat" after purchasing 75,114 copies of the newspaper last year.

Statistics show the broadcaster buys more copies of the Guardian than any other newspaper.

Last year the BBC purchased 73,596 copies of the Times and just under 70,000 copies of both the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.

It also bought around 60,000 copies of both the Sun and the Daily Mirror.

Davies raised the matter during a business statement in the Commons.

He asked House of Commons leader David Lidington: "Can we have a debate, it may need to be a long one, on how out of touch the BBC is with the general public in the United Kingdom?

"In a freedom of information request I have just got back from them, it confirms once again that over last year the BBC bought more copies of the Guardian than any other national newspaper despite it only being the eighth most popular daily newspaper with the British public.

"In fact, they bought 75,000 copies of the Guardian last year.

"I think they are single-handedly keeping the Guardian afloat."

He added; "Doesn't this show how out of touch the BBC are with the general public across the country and shouldn't we expect the national state broadcaster in this country to be more in tune and represent the people it is supposed to represent?"

A spokeswoman for the BBC said: "As an impartial international news broadcaster with three rolling TV news channels, 28 foreign language services, daily paper reviews as well as various radio and TV current affairs programmes, our viewers rightly expect our presenters, journalists and expert contributors to be across all the day's stories in all the UK newspapers."