Alistair Hardaker | Image: Lisa Nandy (CC BY 3.0 UK Parliament)
Nandy retained as culture secretary under new PM Burnham, allowing continuity at DCMS after Starmer’s departure.
Lisa Nandy has kept her post as culture secretary under Andy Burnham’s completes the make-up of his first Cabinet.
Nandy, the MP for Wigan, has led DCMS since July 2024, when she was appointed by outgoing PM Sir Keir Starmer. Her retention makes her one of the few senior ministers to survive the transition to Burnham’s premiership.
A minister since 2010 and MP for Wigan since the same year, Nandy previously held shadow roles covering foreign affairs, housing and international development before entering government. She used her first major speech as culture secretary to declare “the era of government stoking culture wars is over.”
Nandy continues to lead the department under Burnham, himself a former culture secretary under Gordon Brown between 2008 and 2009, a period in which he most notably launched the Hillsborough Independent Panel.
He was inside the department while Labour’s free admission policy for national museums was being developed and rolled out, years before he became culture secretary himself.
Nandy’s reappointment will allow DCMS to continue ongoing work in response to the Hodge Review, an independent review of Arts Council England, published late last year by Baroness Margaret Hodge.
The review recommends ACE strengthen its role as a development agency for museums, including creating a clear strategy and adopting a more pragmatic approach to risk for the Government Indemnity Scheme. It also suggests the government consider admission charges for international visitors to national museums and galleries.
The DCMS under Starmer accepted the review’s recommendations, and ACE said they accepted the review’s recommendations “in the positive spirit they were intended”.
Burnham has been more outspoken on the subject of repatriation than his predecessor.
He has previously shown clear support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum to Greece, writing in a 2023 social media post “[s]end [the Parthenon Marbles] back, no strings. And let’s use culture to change how Britain is seen around the world.”
Nandy recently visited the British Museum to view the Bayeux Tapestry, ahead of its display in the museum’s upcoming exhibition.
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Burnham highlighted rough sleeping as among the first issues he intends to tackle. The government hopes to end rough sleeping “at the earliest opportunity”, the new PM said in a speech outside Number 10 earlier today.
Matthew Turtle, founder and co-director of the Museum of Homelessness in London, responded to the comments.
“The new Prime Minister has consistently focused on tackling homelessness in his career and we know that he has integrity in this which is rare and gives us some cause for optimism,” said Turtle.
“Previous governments of all stripes have nibbled around the edges and been unwilling to do what is necessary. Only time will tell if Andy Burnham’s government will do the right thing.”
