The General Election will be held on Thursday 8 June. As a Labour Party affiliated trade union, the Musicians’ Union (MU) was involved in some of the meetings around the Labour manifesto and we are pleased at many of the policies, including:
- An end to austerity, and £1 billion to launch a new Cultural Capital Fund
- Protecting and investing in music venues, to support grassroots and professional music, and ensuring a healthy music industry across the country
- A review of the business rates system to make it fairer to organisations like music venues, extending the £1,000 pub relief to help small music venues that are suffering from rates rises
- An Arts Pupil Premium that will allow every primary school child in England the chance to learn an instrument
We are also pleased that the Labour Party has acknowledged some of the major concerns that musicians have around Brexit, such as freedom of movement and access to funding.
Whichever way the election goes we hope to see the return of some of the MPs who have worked tirelessly with the MU over the past years to protect musicians and arts and culture, including but not limited to, Alison McGovern, Kerry McCarthy, Thangam Debbonaire, Luciana Berger, Kevin Brennan, Stephen Doughty, John McDonnell, Jo Stevens, Owen Smith and Chris Bryant.
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