Musicians from Ukraine
and Europe: UK Tours
(Ealing Central and Acton)
(Lab)
5. What steps she is taking to support musicians from Ukraine and
Europe to tour in the UK.
The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport
()
My Department regularly engages with the Home Office on
supporting international talent to come to the UK. The Government
have provided direct support for Ukrainian musicians, including
on priority visa applications for orchestras and performers.
There are a number of ways to perform in the UK, including the
creative worker route, which enables workers to come to the UK
for up to 12 months. The UK/Ukraine season of culture and the
upcoming Eurovision song contest demonstrate our ongoing support
for Ukraine.
Dr Huq
We knew things were bad for UK creatives when, last year, an
Webber company chose to take a
Chinese production of “The Phantom of the Opera” on European tour
rather than a home-grown one, because it was cheaper and less
hassle, but last week at Calais, the German punk band Trigger Cut
spent three days wrangling over the permitted entry route, only
to be told that they were not professional enough musicians.
Since when was that kind of judgment part of a customs officer’s
duties? Will the Government urgently negotiate friction-free
touring? This situation is wrecking livelihoods, our cultural
offer and our reputation abroad.
I appreciate that a number of cases recently have caused concern;
I am happy to take those up with the Home Office, including the
case of Trigger Cut. I know there was also an issue in relation
to the Khmelnitsky Orchestra from Ukraine, which was unblocked
with help from ambassadors. There are creative routes to come
here, but if there are any frictions, my Department is eager and
happy to resolve them.
Dame (Gosport) (Con)
Touring musicians from overseas and our home-grown talent need
venues in which to perform, yet many brilliant grassroots music
venues up and down the country are really struggling. They are so
important because they are effectively the research and
development department of our music industry, which is our global
superpower. The cultural recovery fund enabled many of those
venues to survive, but how will we ensure that they are not
destroyed by the cost of living crisis?
My hon. Friend has tremendous passion and expertise in this area
and I know that, like me, she recently met Mark Davyd from the
Music Venue Trust, a grassroots music venue organisation. I
discussed with him a range of issues facing the sector, including
energy costs and ticketing, and various proposals that involve
both Government and the private sector. We are exploring how we
can help those critical grassroots music venues to survive
because, as my hon. Friend recognises, they are vital to the
development of talent in our wider music industry.
(Perth and North Perthshire)
(SNP)
Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster for touring musicians
right across the UK and within the EU. The international language
of song and music is being constrained by a barrage of
bureaucracy and opportunities lost across continents for
generations. Bands from the EU now say they will boycott the UK
because of what they describe as degrading treatment at our
borders, and most UK bands have given up trying to enter the EU
at all. The all-party parliamentary group on music recommended
appointing a touring tsar to fix the problems. Whatever has
happened to that, and what is wrong with that suggestion?
The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight how valuable and
life-enhancing UK music is, including the folk rock that he
produces, and I know Europe is eager to hear it. He paints a
fairly bleak picture of touring, but we have been doing a whole
range of work to unblock some of the issues that have been raised
with us by touring groups. There is now a range of visa,
transport and other arrangements, but it is in our interest to
make sure that those music bands can reach their key audiences,
and we continue to look at what other frictions there are so that
we can try to unblock them.
(Lichfield) (Con)
A few days ago, a Marks & Spencer store held a minute’s
silence for the people of Ukraine and to honour a Ukrainian
employee. There is clearly a huge well of feeling in this country
for the people of Ukraine and the suffering that they are
currently enduring. Can the Minister arrange a tour for the
Ukrainian band? Can we do a lot more to promote the Eurovision
team?
I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting the work of the Marks
& Spencer store in his constituency. We are doing a
tremendous amount of cultural co-operation to support our
Ukrainian friends. We are hosting Eurovision, and that includes
£10 million-worth of support to provide a truly collaborative
show. We are also providing 3,000 subsidised tickets for
displaced Ukrainians in the UK. It will be a tremendous
celebration, and it is being ably organised by my dear colleague,
the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, my
right hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey ().
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Worsley and Eccles South)
(Lab)
Despite the Minister’s comments, the truth is that the Home
Office failed to issue visas on time to five Ukrainian musicians
from the Khmelnitsky orchestra, which was due to perform in the
UK. That was despite promoting the concerts on a UK Government
website as an example of British-Ukrainian relations. The
difficulties have cost that orchestra tens of thousands of
pounds. It is important to the war effort in Ukraine that such
classical music ensembles can perform here, and this incident has
done damage to the UK’s international cultural reputation. Can
the Minister tell us what action she can take, working with the
Home Office, to avoid such damaging incidents happening again
with Ukrainian musicians. A number of orchestras are preparing to
tour, and we do not want to leave them high and dry like the
Khmelnitsky orchestra.
I do not think that anybody in this House should be in any doubt
about the Government’s wide-ranging support for Ukraine and its
people, across the cultural sphere, into defence, and through
other huge forms of co-operation. Obviously, what happened with
that orchestra is regrettable, but once the musicians had
produced all the information that was required, their visas were
fast-tracked and they were able to perform in the UK. If there
are ongoing issues with the Home Office that we need to resolve,
we shall engage carefully with our colleagues, but I think the
hon. Lady’s characterisation of the situation is grossly
unfair.
Besides making it hard for touring musicians to enter the UK, the
funding cuts affecting classical music and opera are leading to
Britain not being attractive to musicians for training or
performing. Last Sunday, Sir Simon Rattle denounced the funding
decisions of the BBC and Arts Council England, saying:
“When the two largest supporters of classical music in this
country cut away at the flesh of our culture…it means that the
direction of travel has become deeply alarming.”
All these problems, from visas to funding cuts, now pose a
fundamental threat to the future role of our world-leading
classical musicians. What future do Ministers see for classical
music in this country?
I thank the hon. Lady for raising Sir Simon Rattle’s
comments—obviously, he is a tremendously valued performer in this
country. But again, she paints an absurdly bleak picture of
classical music in this country. It is tremendously valued by
this Government and by the people we represent. Obviously, there
is an issue with the approach to the BBC Singers and BBC English
orchestras, and we are very glad that the BBC has paused its
decision on that matter. This Government have put forward a tax
relief for the orchestras, which has been extended. Arts Council
England is run by somebody who used to run Classic FM. It has
given huge amounts of money to orchestras. We are now funding 23
orchestral organisations, up from 19 last year. We are putting
forward a music education plan. We have a whole range of
interventions to support classical music in this country, so I
fundamentally disagree with the way the hon. Lady tries to
characterise the Government’s tremendous support for orchestras.
Topical
Questions
On this business of musicians being turned away at our borders,
having tried to enter the UK via the permitted paid engagement
route, can the Secretary of State have stronger words with the
Home Office? I know that the Department for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport’s job tends to be treated as a bit of a one-off
gig by this Government, but she needs to show some heft and
really get stuck into the Home Office on this issue. How can we
credibly argue with our European neighbours that our musicians
should be getting better access to go and play in Europe when we
are treating European musicians trying to enter this country to
do a few gigs like criminals?
I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman highlights that the DCMS has
some heft, because we are responsible for some world-leading
departments. We are absolutely committed to supporting the
creative sector to adapt to requirements for touring in the EU,
and actually the vast majority of member states, including the
UK’s biggest touring markets, offer visa and work permit-free
routes for musicians and creative performers. Of course, there is
more we can do, and my Department is looking closely at this. I
spoke to the Foreign Secretary about it yesterday, and I know
that he raised the challenges faced by touring artists at the
Partnership Council at the end of March.
