Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has approved the appointment of two new non-executive directors at the Department for Culture Media and Sport – as a report floated the prospect that DCMS could be broken up next month.
On Friday, the department confirmed former Southbank Centre artistic director Jude Kelly and Charities Aid Foundation chair Janet Pope had been appointed to three-year terms as NEDs. Pope will also chair the DCMS Audit and Risk Committee.
According to DCMS, Kelly will receive annual remuneration of £15,000 a year for her role, while Pope will receive £20,000 in recognition of her additional duties.
The department’s announcement also detailed the new NEDs’ connections to the Labour Party.
Kelly is a party member and canvassed for Labour at the last general election. Pope is a former councillor in the London Borough of Camden and is currently treasurer of the Camden Central branch of Holborn & St Pancras Labour Party. Prime minister Keir Starmer is constituency MP for Holborn and St Pancras.
News of the new DCMS NEDs came as results of Thursday’s local elections showed Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party making strong gains – and adding a new MP in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection.
One analysis of the national-level fallout out from Reform’s showing included the suggestion that the government is poised to “come out firing on the NHS” to exploit a perceived area of weakness for Farage. It added that new legislation cracking down on illegal immigration would be announced.
The piece, published in the Sunday Times, also said there would be a cabinet reshuffle and machinery of government change in late June – with DCMS, the Department for Education and the Department for Business and Trade a major focus.
“Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is set to lose her job over her handling of schools reforms,”it said. “Peter Kyle, the Blairite loyalist science secretary, is tipped to replace her. Starmer’s team also wants to abolish the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – splitting it between the business department, the education department and the Treasury – allowing them to fire Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state.”
It did not provide any information about the seniority of those responsible for the briefing.
The Sunday Times said that, as well as being a challenge for the government, Reform’s showing at last week’s elections was an “existential threat” for the Conservative Party.
It said party whips had former home secretary Suella Braverman and father of the House Sir Edward Leigh – who previously served as chair of the Public Accounts Commitee – marked as being “on defection watch”.
Civil Service World asked DCMS for a response to the report of its looming abolition. It declined the opportunity to comment.