How do the party manifestos measure up on museums and culture?

With museums and galleries across the UK in a fragile state after 14 years of austerity, many will be looking to the incoming UK Government to bring much-needed change, investment and stability to the sector.

The Museums Association is urging its members to contact their local candidates ahead of the election to ensure museums are on the agenda. It has also produced a UK-wide Museum Manifesto, which calls for increased public investment and the right of everyone to access museums.

Ahead of the General Election on 4 July, most of the major parties have now released their manifestos. Here is our round-up of their proposals for museums and culture.

Labour

Labour’s manifesto is relatively light on references to museums and culture. The only direct mention it makes of museums is a promise to “improve access to cultural assets by requiring publicly funded national museums and galleries to increase the loans they make from their collections”.

The party also commits to investing in the creative industries and bringing culture back to the curriculum. The manifesto states: “With Labour, the arts and music will no longer be the preserve of a privileged few. Culture is an essential part of supporting children and young people to develop creativity and find their voice.”

Although culture doesn’t feature heavily in the manifesto, Labour did set out a more detailed plan for arts and culture earlier this year. This plan includes a requirement for “publicly-funded national museums and galleries to increase their regional and national engagement and loans to public spaces”.

The party has promised to review the Government Indemnity Scheme to make insurance cheaper and easier, as well as changing funding agreements to encourage national museums to lend more.

Labour also says it will support the sector to develop an open data policy “to ensure that national museums and galleries allow everyone to download high-resolution images of works of art that are in the public domain, free of charge for non-commercial use”.

On the crucial issue of funding, Labour says it will “collaborate with the sector, the Creative Industries Council, arts councils and other public funders, investors and donors to create a private finance model or models to attract more funding from different sources into arts organisations and put them on a more sustainable footing”.

Conservatives

The Conservative Party’s manifesto pledges to “always protect our national heritage – including statues, monuments and memorials”.

The manifesto states: “We will keep our ‘retain and explain’ guidance under review to ensure it supports custodians in the preservation of our national history and heritage.”

The party has pledged to further “unleash” philanthropy for cultural institutions. The manifesto states: “We will continue to support museums and libraries across the country. Government has the power to leverage philanthropy for good causes and cultural institutions. We will work with individuals, businesses, charities and other networks to find opportunities to unleash this even further.”

The party is also promising to “complete the review of Gift Aid within the next parliament”.

The Conservatives are also proposing to launch a new Seaside Heritage Fund “to support enhancements to our seaside heritage, preserving and restoring our coastal assets”.

The party promises to “support our world-leading creative industries” through apprenticeships, as well as ensuring “our creative sector tax incentives remain competitive”.

Liberal Democrats

The Lib Dem manifesto says the party will “maintain free access to national museums and galleries”, as well as protecting arts funding “via the National Lottery”.

It states: “The UK’s rich and vibrant cultural heritage is a national treasure. Our creative and tourism industries contribute billions of pounds to our economy and employ millions of people. Art, music, drama and sports bring people together. They are an essential part of a thriving society.”

The manifesto acknowledges that the Covid pandemic “hit culture and tourism businesses extremely hard”.

The manifesto states: “Instead of helping, the Conservatives have only inflicted even more damage. They have downgraded the status of arts subjects at school, slashed funding for them at university, and erected new barriers to British musicians and actors performing elsewhere in Europe following our withdrawal from the EU.”

The party promises to “invest in our cultural capital and nurture the next generation of talent”, stating: “We will support the creative and tourism industries across the UK so that businesses can thrive and people everywhere can enjoy the benefits of sports, music and the arts.”

Green Party

The Green Party’s manifesto states: “Arts, culture and sports are central to people’s mental and physical wellbeing, and to thriving communities. They also make a huge contribution to the UK economy.”

The party promises to push for:

• A £5bn investment to support community sports, arts and culture.
• Keeping local sports facilities, museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries open and thriving.
• An end to VAT on cultural activities, lowering the prices of everything from museum tickets to gigs in local pubs and making these more accessible.

Reform UK

Reform has not published a manifesto, but has produced a Contract with the People that promises to “stand up for British culture, identity and values”.

The contract makes no direct reference to the museum and culture sector but does pledge to “slash wasteful spending, cut bureaucracy and negotiate better value procurement across every department” in order to save £50bn a year.

Plaid Cymru

The party’s manifesto contains several references to museums, including a call to repatriate significant cultural artefacts to Wales.

It states: “A number of important and significant Welsh artefacts are held outside Wales, such as the Mold Gold Cape, the Moel Hebog Shield and the portrait of John Ystumllyn.

“Plaid Cymru believes that these should be returned to Wales and used in a way which benefits the nation from which they originate, rather than be held elsewhere.

“We believe that this principle applies to other artefacts which were removed from their original country and are now hosted elsewhere.”

The party says it is also committed promoting access to arts, culture and heritage. It states: “Plaid Cymru believes that the arts are for everybody and that our organisations should continue to provide greater support and opportunities for everybody to engage with them and participate, irrespective of their background.

“This requires partnerships between stakeholders to foster relationships between locally based cultural activities and our national institutions.

“Wales should also be a host to high quality cultural organisations, which celebrate our history and heritage, and reflect the realities of life in Wales. There should be no reason to sacrifice quality in order to ensure access for all.”

The party says it is committed to maintaining free entry to national museums. The manifesto states: “We remain committed to the policy of free entry to our national museums. We will also work with the Urdd and Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru to ensure free tickets are available for low income families, exploring with them if this can be expanded in future years.

“We support the better promotion of Welsh culture and heritage, including the Football Museum for Wales in Wrexham and the National Gallery of Contemporary Art.”

Scottish National Party

The SNP's manifesto does not make any direct reference to museums. Its only reference to culture comes in a pledge to support rejoining the EU, which it says will deliver "access to the Creative Europe scheme, supporting culture sector cooperation and boosting economic potential of our creative industries".

Democratic Unionist Party

The DUP does not specifically mention museums in its manifesto. It says it will support the establishment of a new UK East-West Council "to foster deeper links for Northern Ireland as part of the union across business, education and culture".

Referring to how the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol has impacted unionist and loyalist communities, the party says it is "committed to securing a practical and ongoing demonstration from future UK Governments of their commitment to both promoting and developing British culture, heritage and traditions in Northern Ireland".

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin, whose elected candidates abstain from taking their seats in Westminster, does not make any reference to museums in its manifesto. It calls for "parity of esteem for Irish culture and language as provided for in the Good Friday Agreement".