Image: Lisa Nandy (CC BY 3.0 UK Parliament)
The MP for Wigan will serve as the first Labour culture secretary in 14 years, in a role previously expected to be taken by Thangam Debbonaire
Lisa Nandy has been appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in the newly elected Labour government.
Nandy is the Labour MP for Wigan, and has been an MP since 2010. She was most recently Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development, and has previously served as Shadow Foreign Secretary and Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
Nandy is the first Labour culture secretary in 14 years, during which 13 Conservative MPs have held the position.
Early last year, as former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a £2bn levelling up fund which would in part fund museums and heritage projects, Nandy labelled the plans a ‘Hunger Games-style contest’. The then shadow secretary said “even the winners are losing”, pointing to the £20m received in her Wigan constituency.
Britain deserves so much better than a Hunger Games-style contest where even the winners end up losing.
That’s why @UKLabour will do things differently 🌹👇 pic.twitter.com/IjtV1cmcEk
— Lisa Nandy (@lisanandy) January 19, 2023
The brief had been expected to go to Labour’s former shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire, but her Bristol Central seat was lost to Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer in Bristol.
Debbonaire congratulated Denyer in a speech following the results. She said she “couldn’t be prouder” of her role in Labour’s national victory, and said “creativity will be put back into the heart of every child’s education”.
Debbonaire was elected to Parliament as MP for Bristol West in 2015, re-elected in 2017, and again in 2019. She was made shadow culture secretary last September.
Labour published its plan for the arts, culture and the creative industries in March, with a foreword written by Debbonaire.
The ‘Creating Growth’ document said the party would “support the museums and galleries sector to make more high-quality images available for free, and to bring incredible art and artefacts into communities”, and that the party would “require publicly-funded national museums and galleries to increase their regional and national engagement and loans to public spaces”.
The second commitment made it to the party’s manifesto, covered in Advisor last month.
