The Conservatives’ “violent indifference” to the arts has resulted in communities across the country getting poor access to culture, Lisa Nandy has said ahead of a planned funding review.
The culture secretary accused her Tory predecessors of “vandalism” as she pledged to get state funding to every community and make sure that private philanthropy reached beyond the major cities.
In an interview with the Guardian, Nandy said: “Over the last 14 years, there’s been a vandalism of the arts. Violent indifference to areas of the country that are becoming arts deserts. They were just not interested in arts everywhere, for everyone.”
The starkest example was in the school curriculum, she said, with Tory ministers labelling arts subjects “Mickey Mouse” and “erasing” them from the classroom, with the numbers taking arts GCSEs dropping by 47% since 2010.
“That closes off the opportunity for every child to live a richer, larger life,” she said. “Unless you have a creative education, you don’t have a complete education.”
Labour has launched a curriculum review to put subjects such as music, art and drama back at the heart of learning. The government is continuing with a review into Arts Council England as well as a review of the funding landscape, as the sector has become increasingly reliant on philanthropic donations that generally go to the major institutions, while council funding has been cut.
However, Nandy defended the Arts Council from claims it had become too political, arguing that the arts “helps us understand the world around us and shape the future”, providing a response during periods of great upheaval.
As culture secretary, she is responsible for public appointments to lead major cultural institutions, and said she was “horrified” when she saw her department’s statistics, which were far from representative of the country.
Instead, she said she would draw on the widest pool of talent, and had already reappointed some Tory hires. However, she insisted she would take a fundamentally different approach from the Conservatives to public appointments. “No more cosy clubs and jobs for your mates,” she said. “We’re going to draw on the widest pool of talent. Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not”.
Ministers are looking at the repatriation of precious objects from British museums, she revealed, and are already holding discussions with institutions including the British Museum, after its chair, the former chancellor George Osborne, approached her.
She admitted there were different views across the museums sector, but said she wanted the government’s approach to be consistent. Local museums can currently make their own decisions, while national institutions cannot.
However, Keir Starmer has said there are no plans to change the law to return the Parthenon sculptures permanently to Greece.
On her first day in the job, Nandy told department officials that the era of government-led culture wars was over. That did not mean just avoiding “all the stupid stuff” like attacking trans people and provoking rows about statues, she explained, but speaking for the country that “lies beneath the surface” and wanted to come together.
She was particularly critical of successive Tory governments for undermining and attacking not just the BBC but most public service broadcasters, with a “constant war of words” and attempts to interfere in editorial decisions. “Our government will be different,” she pledged.
She insisted it was not up to her to comment on whether Robbie Gibb, a former Theresa May aide, should remain on the BBC board. “I would feel really uncomfortable with the idea of a secretary of state interfering beyond their remit,” she said.
Nandy said that she respected BBC independence, but was still able to challenge the director general on the public’s expectations and responses to issues like the Huw Edwards scandal, adding that “individuals are not beyond being held accountable because they’re too powerful to be challenged”.
The government remained committed to the licence fee at least until the end of this BBC charter review period, in 2027, and possibly beyond. But she acknowledged the system had challenges and said “no options are off the table” when it comes to what replaces it, including mutualisation.
She praised local media for its response to the summer riots, but was concerned about the decline of local papers in the UK. The government is planning a specific local media strategy to recognise the importance of the sector.
In the sporting part of her brief, Nandy denied that plans for a football regulator could lead to government interference in the sport, arguing it was the “only sensible approach” to prevent more small clubs going under.
“We intend to deliver it, not because we want to interfere in football, we don’t, but because football has been unable to come to its own agreement,” she said. “The bill incentivises football to do that, with a regulator to step in if it can’t.”
Nandy said she would take a “sensible and proportionate” approach to betting firms sponsoring teams, and defended interim England manager Lee Carsley’s decision not to sing the national anthem.
