Round Up: UK General Election Hustings for the Cultural and Creative Industries

What you need to know from our General Election Hustings for the Cultural and Creative Industries.

On Thursday 20th June 2024, we hosted a virtual hustings event in which representatives from political parties answered questions on key issues facing the sector. The conversation was chaired by Sir Peter Bazalgette, Creative UK Board Member and co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council, and hosted by Creative UK’s Director of Policy and Engagement, Lara Carmona. 

You can now watch the full event on-demand here by signing up to the FREE Creative UK Collective.

On the panel we were joined by:  

• Conservative Party’s Rt Hon Lucy Frazer KC, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport 

• Sir Chris Bryant Labour’s Shadow Minister for Creative Industries & Digital 

• The Rt Hon Lord Tim Clement-Jones, representing the Liberal Democrats as Lords spokesperson for Science, Innovation & Technology 

• Cllr Jack Lenox, the Green Party’s Culture, Sport & Digital Inclusion spokesperson 

• Heledd Fychan, Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for Education, Culture and the Welsh Language 

The issues we debated included effective measures for funding and finance models across the Cultural and Creative Industries; consideration for creative talent, skills and education; the UK’s global competitiveness and plans to grow exports and new international markets for the creative economy; and how a future UK Government would approach IP generation and ownership in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

We had an influx of questions from our members in the audience, ranging from ‘Will the parties introduce a Freelance Commissioner to help the UK’s creative freelancers?’ to ‘How will you ensure that both the tech and creative skills needed for the jobs of the future are available to all school pupils?’. 

So far, the hustings have received lots of media attention in the lead up to the General Election, including at Screen Daily, Broadcast Now and Arts Professional. 

We are working on a more in-depth write-up from the hustings event, which will be published in due course. 

Sign up to the Creative UK Collective for FREE to keep up to date, including an on-demand video version of the event.