Jonathan Davies

Jonathan Davies

Labour — Mid Derbyshire

Speaking in the House of Commons on 15 June 2026

Debate

Royal Albert Hall Bill [Lords]: Revival

Contribution

I am not my right hon. Friend’s diary secretary, but perhaps the hall can get something moving soon. We should probably bring this debate to a close, but it opens a great many questions about how we fund the arts in this country. This model would not be acceptable for the Barbican, the Bridgewater Hall or other venues. We make an exception for the Royal Albert Hall, but we should not let it be the norm. We should look more carefully at the kinds of audiences that we create for the future through the National Centre for Arts and Music Education, so that places such as the Royal Albert Hall have an audience and do not become dependent on people having to pay huge amounts of money to see huge names. People come to events like the Proms because they want to hear classical music, for which we do not currently have an adequate audience at the moment, but we need the venue to be there for them to come.

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