Former Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, has spoken publically for the first time about the Arts Council England’s cut to the ENO, calling it ‘lazy’ and ‘politically motivated’.
Dorries was recently named Number 1 in The Stage 100a list of the 100 most influential figures in UK theatre, for her incredibly negative contribution to the industry. The Stage stated:
Not only did one-time culture secretary Nadine Dorries take a wrecking ball to opera and new writing, she also – for good measure – demolished the arm’s-length principle of arts funding and with it the authority of the Arts Council.
Dorries took to Twitter to respond to The Stage and comment on the decision for the first time.
I’ve topped @TheStage 100 for moving @ace_national funding out of London to regions of the country where not a penny is received to support the arts as part of #levellingup
and blamed for lazy, politically motivated decision making at #ACE who shockingly cut £16m @E_N_O grant– Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) January 5, 2023
Dorries said that ACE’s 100% cut to ENO’s funding had been “pulled as a stunt to try [to] reverse levelling up and funding being transferred to poorer communities in the north of England”.
In a highly controversial move, ACE cut all of the opera company’s funding and then offered the ENO £17 million to develop a new business model and relocate out of London.
Dorries said funding had not been removed from London to the north in “one fell swoop” but was a four-year programme starting with £24 million in the first year, adding: “If there ever was a case for the decision for arms-length bodies to be brought under political control, ACE have just made it.”
Photo Credit: Chris McAndrew