Glasgow School of Art: Mackintosh Building

Gordon McKee Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Torcuil Crichton]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The school’s influence runs everywhere, and not just in Dover House. In the Lobby tonight, the hon. Member for Foyle (Colum Eastwood), who is not in his place, mentioned how his brother had been to Glasgow School of Art. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has spent so much time at the Dispatch Box today, but his mother was at Glasgow School of Art, as were so many friends of mine. I was only ever a graduate of the art school dance; I never actually went to art school, but many friends, colleagues and constituents did.

We shape our buildings and then they shape us. That was the phrase of another Prime Minister, which should be embossed on the walls of this Chamber, because, as we know, it was rebuilt from the ruins of world war two and functions now much as it did before that visit from the Luftwaffe in 1941. Buildings do more than occupy space; they define who we are. Few understood that more profoundly than Charles Rennie Mackintosh, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds) pointed out. His design for the building created an environment in which art, everyday practicality, and beauty and simplicity of design came together as one.

[Gordon McKee (Glasgow South) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an impassioned speech, for which I am grateful. Mackintosh himself started as an apprentice architect aged just 16. Would my hon. Friend agree that as we restore the building, which must be done, there is an important opportunity for the next generation of Glaswegians and others to be part of that project, allowing them to secure their own future?

[Torcuil Crichton]

I could not agree more. We must remember that the art school itself began as a design school—almost an engineering school for the shipyards and the industrial base of Scotland. There is a plan to make the art school, with a restored Mackintosh building, the anchor of cultural and economic development again.

What my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford East says is true: the Glasgow School of Art and the Mackintosh building have become a symbol of Glasgow, and Glasgow has a symbiotic relationship with the art school. That is why it is tragic to see it in its current condition. As the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) pointed out, the Mack is not simply a national treasure for Scotland; it is a cultural and creative asset for the whole of the UK. It is an emblem of what Scotland has contributed to the global story of design and success over the last century.

It should not just be left to Glasgow School of Art, to Scotland or to the alumni of the art school to take this on. Collectively, we are all custodians of the Mackintosh. It should fall on us as a nation to restore the building to its glory. The Government should be willing and ready to engage with Glasgow School of Art in the project. Let us be clear: this can be done. We need only look across the channel to the example of Notre-Dame, which was burnt down in a fire in 2019. The French Government stepped in with the full muscle of the state to implement a reconstruction programme.