More than 13,500 people have signed a petition urging new prime minister Andy Burnham to put the arts in the upcoming ‘10-year plan’ he announced on his first day in Downing Street. Launched by Campaign for the Arts on 25 July, the petition describes the 10-year plan as a “golden opportunity” to renew Labour’s pledge to “place the arts back where they belong, at the centre of a new, hopeful, modern story of Britain”.

Alongside adding the arts and culture to the 10-year plan, the petition also urges the prime minister to “commit to building a country where the arts are available from childhood, accessible to all and thriving everywhere”. The campaign refers back to the priorities of the Labour government after the Second World War, which established the Arts Council and produced the Festival of Britain as a “tonic to the nation”.

“This is the moment to voice our support for artists and cultural organisations, and for the potential of the arts to enrich lives and communities everywhere,” said Campaign for the Arts director Jack Gamble. “We urgently need them to help mend our fraying social fabric and to revitalise the nation. They simply must be an integral part of the new government’s 10-year plan for the UK,” he added.