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Michael Dugher MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, in a speech to Labour Party Annual Conference in Brighton, said:
Conference, what a summer we’ve had.
At the beginning of this summer, no one gave them a chance.
Written off by the commentators and the newspapers.
Rank outsiders. Not a hope in hell of winning. That’s what everyone said.
But they were wrong.
They did win.
Now, Conference, I’m not referring to Jeremy Corbyn’s victory in the Labour leadership campaign.
I’m talking about England winning the Ashes in the cricket.
And Conference, let’s also pay tribute to our England women’s football team on the fantastic World Cup they had.
The best performance by a senior England side since the 1966.
As Harriet said at PMQs: “With only a fraction of the resources that the men get, they are showing the men how it is done.”
Conference, it’s been a summer of sporting success.
Andy Murray taking Great Britain through to a first Davis Cup final since 1978 – a chance to win our first Davis Cup since 1936.
And the ‘Flying Scotsman’ himself, Gary Anderson, becoming the 2015 PDC World Darts Champion.
But, Conference, Britain’s summer of sport continues as we host the Rugby World Cup.
Shortly after Jeremy appointed me to this job in the shadow cabinet, he asked me if I could attend the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham.
I said: “Jeremy, these are precisely the kind of sacrifices I’m prepared to make for socialism.”
Mind you. When I saw that England had been beaten by Wales the other night, I thought: “thank goodness I won’t have to bump into Neil Kinnock in Brighton this week”.
Conference, we know that sport makes a massive contribution to our country, to our society and to our economy.
And of course the same can be said about the contribution made by the arts and by our creative industries.
Not only do they unlock the talents of individuals, they sustain millions of jobs and add billions to our economy every year.
They enrich our society in a way that we could never calculate.
We can, and we should, be proud that we are world leaders in this area.
But, Conference, the truth is this could all be at risk because of the short-sighted approach of the Tories.
The Government introduced massive cuts to Arts Council funding in the last Parliament. And we know how badly they’ve cut local council budgets.
Closing down avenues of opportunity for people across the country to get access to arts and culture.
Preventing the development of new talent and future stars.
And in the Spending Review, later this year in November, things could get even worse.
Conference, that’s why Labour will campaign for sustained investment in the arts and culture, and in grassroots sport.
But we also need a fundamental re-think into how funding is allocated.
We’ve got to tackle the regional disparities, the need to improve access for working class kids and the need to ensure fairness in funding across the sectors.
That’s why I can announce today that Labour will be launching a review into investment in arts and culture.
And that we will develop a comprehensive National Plan for the publicly funded arts and culture sector.
This is something Jeremy Corbyn called for before his election as leader of our party.
This is something I know that he is passionate about.
And that’s exactly what we intend to deliver.
But Conference, there is another big campaign that we’re going to get started today. And that’s the campaign to defend the BBC.
We’ll be working with Trade Unions, with people across the sector.
Because no one should be in any doubt that this Tory Government presents a clear and present danger to the future of the BBC.
It could be the end of the BBC as we know it.
Ministers talk about “cutting it down to size”.
Proposals include:
• axing Radio 1 and Radio 2;
• narrowing the BBC’s remit to stop the broadcaster from making some of its most popular shows;
• potentially scrapping the licence fee;
• cutting the length of the charter;
• reducing the BBC’s news output.
Cutting down the BBC – together with their plans to look at privatising Channel 4 – represents an assault on the very principle of public service broadcasting.
Conference, the BBC is the cornerstone of the creative industries in this country – a massive part of our economy.
For every one pound of licence fee spent, two pounds is generated in economic activity.
Like the NHS, the BBC is one of the institutions that makes Britain great.
There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world.
Now of course we want the BBC to change and to modernise – to be even better in the future.
But what the Tories are looking at is little less than cultural vandalism.
They seek to demonise and denigrate the BBC. Why? So that they can diminish and dismantle the BBC.
And Conference we won’t let them get away with it.
Remember that great speech from Harry Leslie Smith last year, Conference?
When he told the Tories to keep their mitts off our NHS?
Well let’s send a strong message to the Government from this year’s Labour Conference: keep your mitts off the BBC too.
We won’t let the Bullingdon Boys bully the BBC.
Conference, we’ve got a great Labour team shadowing culture, media and sport: Clive Efford, Chi Onwurah, Wilf Stevenson and Tulip Siddiq.
And we’re going to get after these Tories.
Conference, let us celebrate everything that is good in this country about our arts, our culture, our creative industries and our sport. Let us celebrate them and let’s protect them from the Tories.
But let’s also open them up for people from every corner of the country, from all backgrounds and to a new generation.
That’s what Labour’s plan will be all about.
With your help, Conference, we can do just that.
Thank you.
Ends