What do the political party manifestos say about arts and culture?

The need-to-know arts and culture policies from Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens

What do the political party manifestos say about arts and culture?

The Labour Party

Keir Starmer’s changed Labour Party promises to make arts and culture accessible to all, no longer being “the preserve of a privileged few.” If they form the next government, arts and music will support schoolchildren “develop creativity and find their voice.”

As part of this accessible approach, Labour will require publicly funded national museums and galleries to increase the loans they make from their collections to communities across the UK, making artwork more available and no longer concentrated in places such as London. 

As part of the proposed Industrial Strategy, Labour will implement a creative industries sector plan to increase jobs and growth in “film, music, gaming and other creative sectors.” This includes introducing new consumer protections on ticket releases, again echoing a desire to improve access to live cultural events by eliminating ticket touting.

Labour will also launch the National Music Education Network which will provide information on courses and classes for children, young people, parents and teachers.

Read more from their 2024 manifesto here.

The Conservative Party

If re-elected into government, Rishi Sunak will provide apprenticeship training through a dedicated flexible coordination service, with the aim being that “everyone who wants to work in the film, TV, gaming and music sectors can work on live productions whilst benefiting from at least 12 months of secure training.”

The Conservatives would also include a new complaints process for the BBC, because the service should “represent the perspectives of the entire nation with diversity of thought, accuracy and impartiality as its guiding principles.” The party would consider the findings of the Funding Review ahead of the next Royal Charter to “ensure it upholds these principles.”

The manifesto also states that the party would ensure the UK “creative sector tax incentives remain competitive.” 

The party continues to oppose state regulation of the press and continues to be a “a strong defender offreedom of speech and freedom of the press.”

Read more from their 2024 manifesto here.

The Liberal Democrat Party

Under Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dems would “promote creative skills, address the barriers to finance faced by small businesses, and support modern and flexible patent, copyright and licensing rules.”

The party would also aim to solve an issue which has arisen after Brexit and negotiate short-term travel arrangements for UK artists to perform in the EU and for European artists to perform in the UK.

It would protect the BBC, S4C, BBC Alba and Channel 4 as independent, publicly owned, public service broadcasters.

Read more from their 2024 manifesto here.

The Green Party

Under co-leaders Carla Deyner and Adrian Ramsay, the Green Party would invest £5bn to support “community sports, arts and culture” to keep local museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries “open and thriving.”

The party would also end VAT on cultural activities which would lower the “prices of everything from museum tickets to gigs in local pubs” and in turn make these events more accessible.

It would also ensure no single individual or company can own more than 20% of any media market and implement all reforms proposed in the second part of the 2012 Leveson Report.

Read more from their 2024 manifesto here.

Header Image Credit: <p&p>photo

Author

Sienna James

Sienna James Voice Team

Sienna is the Assistant Editor at Voice. She spent three years studying History of Art at Cambridge University and loves to explore the intersection between politics, history and visual culture. She also loves to hear how young people and artists are engaging in various innovative forms of socio-political resistance whether that's activism or art-making.

Recent posts by this author

View more posts by Sienna James

0 Comments

Post A Comment

You must be signed in to post a comment. Click here to sign in now

You might also like

What does the US Election 2024 mean to us in the UK?

What does the US Election 2024 mean to us in the UK?

by Voice Magazine

Read now