In response, Government Arts and Heritage Minister, Stephen Parkinson said he agreed ‘wholeheartedly with the sentiments Lord Bragg put forward’ and ‘I pay tribute to groups including the Campaign for the Arts’, which keep ‘all of us on our toes’.

The UK-wide alliance, Campaign for the Arts, was formed in 2022 by the merger of the National Campaign for the Arts (formed in 1984) and Public Campaign for the Arts (formed in 1985 with Bragg as its first President). Campaign for the Arts was a direct response to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its threat to the UK’s cultural sector. It has played a pivotal role in urging the Government to deliver the Culture Recovery Fund.

The Campaign for the Arts advocates for three main pillars for the arts to be:

• available from childhood
• accessible to all, and
• thriving everywhere.