Lisa Nandy survived, but will free museum entry last under Andy Burnham's new government?
- maxwell museums
- Jul 25
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 27
New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has kept Lisa Nandy as culture secretary. But when it comes to museums, will he scrap the policy of universal free entry? Here Maxwell Blowfield — founder of maxwell museums — ponders if charging foreign tourists might be a tempting quick financial win to show his government is easing the cost of living.
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So, it turns out visiting the Bayeux Tapestry last week wasn’t one of Lisa Nandy’s final engagements as culture secretary, as I had predicted.
The most eye-popping development from this week’s formation of a new British government was not John Healey’s genuinely surprising appointment as Chancellor — it was that Nandy retained her job.
In many ways, I doubt there’s anyone more surprised than Nandy herself. She has spent weeks aligning herself with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, even before he returned as an MP. She was the first cabinet minister to campaign for him in Makerfield. Fair enough, that’s politics. She saw the way the wind was turning, and she clearly wanted a promotion.
Yet that’s the most baffling thing about retaining her in the role: she does not enjoy it! All the signs that come out of DCMS is that she’s bored by the job. Observers outside the culture, media and sport sectors — as well as those inside, including many of you reading this — can see that she has done the bare minimum over the past two years.
On her reappointment this week, the Political Editor of The New World James Ball wondered whether “this is intended as a punishment to Lisa Nandy, who clearly hates the job; or a punishment to the entire UK culture sector, which is suffering as a result of that.”
Zooming out to what the new government means for museums, I think the most important thing to keep an eye on will be universal free entry to England’s national museums, and the recent revival in interest in making foreign tourists pay admission.
The new Prime Minister has all this week announced new policies as part of his pledge to give people "more breathing room" in the first weeks of his government. These so far have included scrapping VAT on electricity bills from the autumn, and the reintroduction of the £2 bus fare cap. All are headline-grabbing announcements that, yes, will help people in incremental ways. But crucially, they cost relatively little in the grand scheme of state spending.
What worries me is that another relatively minor line on the government’s budget spreadsheet is the grant-in-aid to national museums and galleries to cover free entry. We know at last year’s Budget that the Treasury modeled both abolishing it altogether, as well introducing charges for foreign visitors. I can see this being revived.
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And while under the new regime the former would probably conflict too much with the Prime Minister’s pledge to help Brits with the cost-of-living, the latter could be too-easy-to-resist as a way to get some quick cash to spend elsewhere. It would be argued it’s only rich international tourists who will lose out, and it also wouldn’t hurt his vibe that it will (wrongly, in my opinion) be presented as only metropolitan-elite London institutions that will be affected.
If Burnham does want a quick win (and all week his announcements have shown that he does), all he has to do is ask the Treasury to dig out that folder again. Suffice to say it would be a massive mistake — but I expect all the culture secretary will do is shrug.
— Maxwell Blowfield is the Founder and Editor of maxwell museums
