‘Worse than the Tories’: cultural figures question Labour plans for arts in schools | Arts in schools

Leading cultural figures have expressed doubts about the government’s commitment to restoring the creative arts in English schools, with one warning that Labour has “lost the plot” and “the current signs are they are worse than the Tories”.

When Labour won the election, it promised to expand opportunities for working-class children by broadening the school curriculum to include more drama, art, music and sport alongside the core academic subjects.

The plans were welcomed but new government proposals to let artificial intelligence companies train their models on copyright-protected work without permission have shaken confidence in Labour among artists and creatives.

Lee Hall, the award-winning writer of Billy Elliot and an ambassador for Arts and Minds, which campaigns for all children to have the right to study creative subjects and full restoration of arts funding in schools, said: “I am deeply worried that the government is going to sideline the arts, because they clearly don’t understand them.

“The Labour party are currently making a fundamental attack on all artists with proposals to suspend copyright protections to allow AI companies unlicensed free use of all copyrighted work in the UK past and going forward. It’s such a fundamental and crucial blow to all writers and artists, it feels like the Labour party have lost the plot over the arts and creative industries. Certainly the current signs are they are worse than the Tories.”

The government is said to be considering concessions on its proposals after a backlash. It is also due to publish an interim report on its curriculum and assessment review imminently.

A key demand from critics has been the scrapping of the English baccalaureate (Ebacc), which requires children to study a suite of highly academic subjects and excludes the arts.

It is also the bedrock on which a school’s progress 8 score is based. This determines its place in performance tables and therefore acts as an incentive to eschew the arts and focus on Ebacc subjects.

GCSE and A-level entries for arts courses have plummeted since the Ebacc was introduced in 2011 and critics say the arts have increasingly become the preserve of the privately educated.

The artist Bob and Roberta Smith (real name Patrick Brill), who runs workshops for children interested in studying at London Metropolitan University, said: “Very few of the kids I have worked with are doing arts GCSE and even fewer are doing the A-level. In Tower Hamlets last year, in the whole borough there were less than 30 kids doing the A-level. Just a disgrace.

“Labour must ditch the Ebacc and get rid of progress 8. Without showing leadership in this area it’s all just warm words that will betray our creative children.”

The writer Michael Rosen was also sceptical about Labour’s promises. “Based on what’s happened over the last few months, I think it is reasonable to expect that this Labour government will not do what it said it would do,” he said.

“When it comes to education policies, Labour governments of recent years tremble in the face of what they imagine is the giant monolith of rightwing educational theory.”

As a result, he said, they have ended up producing policies that are “cunning attempts to out-Tory the Tories”.

Another Arts and Minds ambassador, the actor Jamie Kenna, said it was much harder now for children from a working-class background like him to study and work in the creative arts. “The arts should be accessible to every child,” he said. “The opportunity to follow your passions and dreams should not be determined by your wealth and status.”

Arlene Phillips, a choreographer whose career took off after her local council awarded her a grant to study at the Muriel Tweedy dance school in Manchester, said: “The arts feed the soul and the realisation that your life can be in the arts is the biggest gift for young people that desire it. To give everyone that chance through their school life will be life-changing for so many.”

Smith said: “We all pay taxes. All our voices should be seen and heard in the arts. Very few artists have an estuary accent. Viva the estuary, protect the sea gulls!”

A government spokesperson said: “High and rising standards are at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and we are committed to ensuring art, music and drama are no longer the preserve of a privileged few.

“To help achieve this, our curriculum and assessment review will seek to deliver a broader curriculum. The budget also delivered on the government’s commitment to put education back at the forefront of national life, including by putting a further £2.3bn into school budgets next year.”