King’s Speech

Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone (Con)]

My Lords, the gracious Speech spoke of a country in which

“every child is included in the nation’s highest aspirations”

and in which no child should be held back by poverty, special educational needs or lack of respect for vocational education. Well, that is quite a challenge on the day that an 11-year high in youth unemployment has been announced. Among 16 to 24 year-olds, the rate has surged to 16.2%, with a 24.6% spike in London: one in four of that age group is unemployed.

We are promised a Bill to raise standards in schools and introduce generational reform of special educational needs. Let us hope that that is ambition enough, but the test is whether it makes a real difference in classrooms, communities and cultural institutions, where too many people fail to receive opportunities for a worthwhile education.

The gracious Speech failed to refer to culture, the arts or the creative industries—unless you count sport. There was much about growth, economic security and public service reform, but education is more than just achieving standards and examination success. Culture is not an optional extra to be afforded only when times are easy. The creative industries—if not our Eurovision songs—are part of Britain’s national pride and strength. A country that nurtures talent, widens opportunity and develops human potential will gain socially and economically.

How serious is the Government’s growth agenda when so many of their actions impede growth? The increase in employer national insurance contributions, and lowering employee pay thresholds where the employer has to pay, have a harsh impact on labour-intensive sectors, including the arts. Theatres, orchestras, museums, galleries, festivals and production companies are all suffering as a result of the steps this Government have taken. Higher employment costs mean less rehearsal time, less touring and fewer new commissions. A Government praising creative industries as drivers of growth should not make it harder for those organisations to survive and flourish.

Of course, our cultural model is a mixed one. We do not have the high public subsidy of Europe, nor the scale of private philanthropy seen in the US, but what we are seeing is the pressure on private giving and philanthropy. Those who studied the Rich List report last weekend will have seen that one in six of those who were on the list two years ago did not appear. One-third have left the country. This is a really alarming result of a Government who make success, prosperity and wealth seem unworthy. We are losing the people who so often have funded many of our major activities.

The Government have announced that they are accepting or exploring much of the review from the noble Baroness, Lady Hodge. I welcome that and I hope it makes a big difference. I have often referred to Hull as being a great centre of creative activity. The head of the National Theatre, the most important theatrical job in the country, and James Graham were among those educated there, and what it did for a community with high unemployment and low pride is quite remarkable.

Let me quickly refer to those young people and older people of all ages who fail to get the recognition they deserve: those in prison education. I call on the Government to end the ludicrous ban on prisoners taking university degrees. Too often, education in prisons is short-changed, due to understandable employment and funding problems. Victor Hugo said:

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison”.


Education is critically connected to the prison population.