Starmer: Everyone ‘deserves chance to be touched by art’

Government will strive to open up access to arts and culture to all, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said.

Delivering his first Labour Party conference speech since winning July's general election, Starmer re-emphasised his commitment to reforming the education system to enable children greater access to creative subjects.

"[Playing] the flute gave me so many opportunities. My first-ever trip abroad was to Malta with the Croydon Youth Philharmonic Orchestra," he said. 

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"These early encounters with art and culture, they change us forever. But those opportunities don’t go to every child, do they?

"Everyone deserves the chance to be touched by art. Everyone deserves access to moments that light up their lives.

"And every child deserves the chance to study the creative subjects that widen their horizons, provide skills employers do value, and prepares them for the future, the jobs and the world that they will inherit."

Starmer's comments follow the launch in the summer of an independent review of what is taught in schools in England, part of government efforts to make the arts and creativity central to the education system.

Earlier this month, Professor Becky Francis, CEO of the Education Endowment Foundation, who is leading the review, said there are two "key capacity issues" facing the school system – the capacity of the workforce in light of recruitment and retention issues and the capacity of the curriculum itself.

Ahead of Starmer's speech, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the conference that a forthcoming review of Arts Council England, which is due to take place following a review of the funding landscape for arts, will be designed to "ensure arts for everyone, everywhere".

"Because we will never accept that culture is just for the privileged few to be hoarded in a few corners of the country, and we will never accept that there is a trade-off between excellence and access," she said.

Nandy added that government will "hand back power" to communities to reclaim their cultural assets and historic buildings "so they have a vibrant future not a forgotten past". 

"And we'll put rocket boosters under tourism, film, gaming, growing creative industries in Sunderland, Blackpool, Birmingham and Dundee, alongside our amazing mayors and councils, so people in every part of our country have not just got good jobs in their own community, but the chance to write the next chapter of our national story."