16-05-2025
Lisa Nandy's Culture Department faces axe
Lisa Nandy's Culture Department is facing the axe in Downing Street's civil service efficiency drive, throwing her Cabinet future into doubt.
The move would bring to an end 33 years of a standalone government department for arts and cultural matters, amounting to a major Whitehall overhaul.
It would also leave Ms Nandy, the Culture Secretary who once stood against Sir Keir for the Labour leadership, out of a job.
A decision would be needed on whether to create space for her elsewhere on the front bench. Currently there are no Cabinet vacancies.
No 10 insiders believe the existing policy briefs that sit in the Culture Department could easily be moved into other departments. But it would likely mean some job cuts.
There is a wider drive from Sir Keir's allies to streamline the Civil Service, including reducing overall running costs by 15 per cent and relocating roles out of London.
'Plan for change'
A Whitehall insider familiar with thinking said: 'If we want to deliver the Plan for Change you can't just do business as usual. You have to do stuff differently, you have to be reformers.'
The so-called 'plan for change' is a reference to Sir Keir's priorities in office. The plan was published in December and includes targets for slashing NHS waiting lists and improving early educational standards.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, as it is formally called, has had various iterations and titles during its three decades of existence.
It was created by the Conservatives in 1992 as the Department of National Heritage and covered the arts, broadcasting, film, sport, architecture and historic sites, royal parks and tourism.
An early achievement was overseeing the creation of the National Lottery, which was launched during Sir John Major's premiership.
It has been through many changes. In 2023, culture ministers lost oversight of online safety rules when they were moved into the newly created Science, Innovation and Technology Department.
Formal advice on closing the Culture Department was drafted for Sir Keir's speech on March 13 when he announced the abolition of NHS England and vowed to tackle government 'bureaucracy'.
Ultimately, the announcement was not made then but The Telegraph understands that there remains interest in taking the move in Number 10. No final decision has been locked in.
The abolition of the body would lead to a carve-up of which other departments should take over responsibility for specific policy areas.
Areas covering cultural issues and the arts could be given to the Communities Department, under early thinking, while media matters could be moved to the Business Department.
Who would become responsible for the BBC licence fee would be closely watched, given how many millions of Britons pay it every year.
The drive behind the change is understood not to be a wish for a wider reshuffle. Downing Street continues to insist '100 per cent' that no major reshuffle is being planned for the near future.
One well-placed Starmer ally said: 'It is about a lean and agile state. It is not about individuals or reshuffles.'
But the move would raise questions about what happens to the department's ministers: Ms Nandy, Sir Chris Bryant, the creative industries minister, and two parliamentary under-secretaries of state: Stephanie Peacock and Baroness Twycross.
Ms Nandy ran against Sir Keir in the 2020 Labour leadership race, finishing a distant third behind both Sir Keir and Rebecca Long-Bailey.
She was handed the senior role of shadow foreign secretary in Sir Keir's first front bench appointments but was demoted twice: first to shadow communities secretary in November 2021 and then to shadow international development minister in September 2023.
Ms Nandy was unexpectedly given the Culture Secretary role when Labour won office last summer after Baroness Debbonaire, who held the shadow brief, lost her seat as an MP in the general election.
Sir Keir and his inner circle have hardened their views of the Civil Service and the need for reform after becoming frustrated with how hard it has proved to deliver their policy goals.
The Prime Minister surprised some commentators and civil service trade union representatives when he criticised the approach of officials in a speech in December.
Sir Keir said: 'Too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline. Have forgotten, to paraphrase JFK, that you choose change, not because it's easy but because it's hard.'
