The Conservative government's “fierce disinterest” in the arts is leaving communities across the country with less access to culture, Lisa Nandy said ahead of the budget review.
The Culture Secretary promised to deliver state funding to all communities and expand private charity beyond major cities, and accused her Conservative predecessors of “vandalism”.
In an interview with The Guardian, Nandy said: “The last 14 years have seen vandalism against the arts, a violent indifference to parts of the country that are becoming art deserts. They have had no interest in art everywhere, for everyone.”
The most notable example is the school curriculum, where she said Conservative ministers had branded arts subjects “Mickey Mouse” and “killed” them from classrooms, leading to a 47% drop in the number of arts GCSE candidates since 2010.
“This denies every child the opportunity to have a fuller, more enriched life,” she said. “If they don't have a creative education, they don't have a complete education.”
Labour has launched a curriculum review which will put subjects such as music, art and drama back at the heart of learning, and the government is continuing its review of Arts Council England and its funding situation, as the arts sector becomes increasingly reliant on charitable donations that typically go to flagship institutions and funding to councils is being cut.
But Mr Nandy defended the Arts Council against criticism that it was becoming overly politicised, arguing the arts “help us understand the world around us and shape the future” and provide a response in times of great upheaval.
As culture minister, she is responsible for appointing officials to head key cultural institutions and said she was “horrified” to see her department's statistics which were far from representative of the country.
Instead, she said she would draw from the widest talent pool, and she reappointed some of the people she had already recruited from the Conservative party. But she insisted she would take a fundamentally different approach to appointments than the Conservatives. “No more cozy clubs and jobs for cronies,” she said. “We're going to draw from the widest talent pool. Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is nowhere.”
He said ministers were considering returning precious items from UK museums and were already in discussions with institutions including the British Museum after being approached by former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne.
She acknowledged there were different opinions across the museum industry, but said she wanted to see consistency in the government's approach. Currently, local museums can make their own decisions, but national institutions cannot.
But Keir Starmer said he had no plans to change the law to permanently return the Parthenon sculptures to Greece.
On her first day in office, Nandy told ministry staff that the days of government-led culture wars were over. That didn't just mean avoiding “all the stupid stuff” like attacking transgender people or stirring up controversy over statues, she explained, but that she wanted to represent and unite the country “below the surface.”
She particularly criticised successive Conservative governments for undermining and attacking not just the BBC but most public service broadcasters through a “constant war of words” and attempts to interfere with their editorial policy. “Our government will change,” she vowed.
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She insisted it was not her role to comment on whether Robbie Gibb, a former aide to Prime Minister Theresa May, would remain on the BBC's board. “It's really disgusting that the Secretary of State would overstep his remit and interfere,” she said.
Nandy said he respected the BBC's independence but that people could challenge the director-general about public expectations and responses to issues like the Huw Edwards scandal, adding: “Just because individuals are too powerful to challenge it does not mean they cannot be held accountable”.
The government has committed to keeping the licence fee in place until at least the end of the BBC's charter review in 2027, and probably beyond that, but he acknowledged there are challenges to the system and said “all options are not being ruled out” about alternatives, including mutualisation.
She praised local media's response to the summer riots but expressed concern about the decline of local newspapers in the UK, with the Government planning a specific local media strategy to recognise the importance of the sector.
In a segment on sport, Nandy denied the football regulator's plans could lead to government interference in the sport, arguing it was the “only sensible approach” to prevent smaller clubs going bust.
“We are bringing this bill into force because we want to interfere in football – not because we want to interfere, but because football has not been able to reach an agreement on its own,” she said. “This bill will encourage football to do so and if they can't then the regulator will step in.”
Nandy said the club would take “sensible and proportionate” action against betting companies who sponsor the team, and defended England caretaker manager Lee Carsley's decision not to play the national anthem.
