Points of Order

Barbara Keeley Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

On a point of order,

Madam Deputy Speaker. Following Eurovision, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport put a news story on the Government website with a joint comment piece from the Culture Secretary and the Ukrainian Culture Minister. The piece claims that the Government have been

“proud to lead global support for Ukrainian culture, sport and arts since the invasion”

and is

“assisting the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine to share their music as they tour the UK this year.”

This last claim appears not to be correct. I have been told by the manager of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine’s tour to the UK:

“we’ve had no contact with the Government whatsoever in response to our enquiries about how best to manage the visa applications for the orchestra”.

The Government could do so much to assist the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra in upcoming tours to the UK. Tour managers for both orchestras have raised with me the heavy administrative and logistical burden of applying for UK visas from war-torn Ukraine, including the difficulties of travelling to visa application centres in Ukraine or Poland and the prohibitive costs of visas. I intend to raise these issues with the Culture Secretary, but I seek your advice, Madam Deputy Speaker, about how I can get the Government to correct the story on the website, and how to ask the Culture Secretary not to make claims of assisting the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine to tour the UK when they appear to have had no contact whatsoever.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I thank the hon. Lady for her point of order and for giving me notice of it. She will appreciate that I am not responsible for Government websites, but I hope that, as the Government Whip is listening intently, what she has said will be reported back to Ministers and if any corrections can be made, they will do so. On the other issues she raised, I am confident that she will continue to pursue them. She might want to seek advice from the Table Office but she is a very experienced Member of the House, and I am sure she will continue to pursue the matter in the ways that she knows she can.