Michelle Donelan: New culture secretary unafraid to take on culture wars and BBC

Michelle Donelan will be responsible for broadcasting, arts, online and sports policy

New UK Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan has eye-catching experience in the worlds of media, sport and entertainment, after a previous job with US wrestling franchise WWE. Now, she is gearing up for political combat over issues ranging from online regulation to the futures of Channel 4 and the BBC.

After going to state school in Cheshire and becoming the first in her family to go to university - studying history and politics at York - Ms Donelan began a media career as marketing assistant on Marie Claire and That's Life magazines.

That was followed by marketing-executive jobs at the History Channel and World Wrestling Entertainment, and a spell as a marketing freelancer.

She moved into politics in 2015, becoming the MP for Chippenham, Wiltshire, before being appointed as a government whip and a minister in the Department for Education.

Forthright views

While there, she was known for speaking her mind. As universities minister, she talked about students being "conned" into debt by taking degrees that might not be worthwhile. And she often picked up the phone to vice-chancellors to express her forthright views.

Michelle Donelan has been Conservative MP for Chippenham since 2015

As Higher and Further Education Minister, Ms Donelan steered the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Bill, which will require universities and student unions to protect freedom of speech.

The bill would stop "intolerant woke bullies" on campuses, she said, making it harder to no-platform speakers or dismiss academics who put forward controversial or unpopular views. BBC Radio 4's Evan Davis highlighted this would also allow Holocaust deniers to speak.

Ms Donelan was promoted to Education Secretary this July but resigned after just two days as part of the mass ministerial walkout leading to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson's resignation.

'Cultural vandalism'

In her new remit, as the11th culture secretary in 10 years, culture wars are raging too, over what is acceptable to say or broadcast. Ms Donelan is unlikely to be shy about speaking up against those who she says want to "silence their opponents" and make others conform "to an increasingly narrow ideology".

In April, the 38-year-old wrote despairingly: "We now see trigger warnings slapped on Harry Potter. We see George Orwell's 1984 branded 'offensive and upsetting' for students to read."

She has also posted about the "cultural vandalism" of award-winning books being "quietly scrubbed" from university reading lists because of their challenging content, and objected to poets Philip Larkin and Wilfred Owen's removal from a GCSE syllabus in an attempt to make it more diverse.

Channel 4 sale?

Elsewhere, the futures of Channel 4 and the BBC will be near the top of her in-tray.

Ms Donelan's predecessor, Nadine Dorries, was planning to privatise Channel 4, in the face of opposition from the broadcaster itself and much of the media industry.

John McVay, chief executive of Pact, a trade body representing independent TV production companies, has asked the new culture secretary to reconsider. "It was nonsensical enough 18 months ago, now it just seems to be even more nonsensical," he said, referring to a predicted economic downturn.

Licence fee 'an unfair tax'

The government is also conducting out a mid-term review of the BBC's royal charter, which sets out the framework for the corporation's existence, amid a debate about the future of the licence fee and what might replace it.

Nadine Dorries was culture secretary for just over a year

Ms Dorries said the fee would not continue when the current BBC charter expired, at the end of 2027.

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In 2019, Ms Donelan said the "unfair tax... should be scrapped altogether".

She started a petition on her website, opposing the end of free television licences for most over-75s, and wrote to then director general Lord Hall highlighting:

• the "staggering" number of BBC managers paid more than £100,000

• a £1.7m annual payment for "one prominent presenter" making "just one appearance a week" - Gary Lineker, who has since taken a pay cut - could pay for 11,000 over-75s

Digital and sport

Then there is the "digital" part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) brief. Ms Dorries was passionate about the Online Safety Bill, a proposed law seeking to set rules about how internet providers clamp down on harmful content on their sites.

In her resignation letter, the outgoing culture secretary wrote she was proud the bill "will hold tech giants to account and protect the lives of millions of children and young people".

But it is on pause and the Liz Truss government must decide whether to put it back on track. Some critics say it will bring in censorship by the backdoor, because those technology giants will be given too much power to police content, and they could be especially cautious in doing so if big fines or jail are the possible punishments.

Sport is a big part of the job, too, with perennial questions about football and rugby club ownership and rescues for those in trouble. Ms Dorries announced plans for an independent football regulator to ensure "no more Macclesfields, no more Derbys, no more Chelseas", referring to clubs' financial problems.

Cultural venues feel the heat (or not)

On the culture side, museums, theatres and other institutions around the country are struggling. Visitor numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, soaring energy bills and inflation, coupled with audience members tightening their purses, are tipping many into financial difficulties.

Museums and libraries are being touted as possible "warm banks" to act as refuges for people this winter. Some say they might struggle to keep the heating on themselves.

But will the new culture secretary and government have the appetite or spare funds for the further bailout of the sector, after the vital rescue packages during Covid?

Beyond the policies, what do we know about Ms Donelan's own cultural interests?

Not a lot, yet. However, she did post, in June, she was a fan of TV soap opera Neighbours - sadly, though, she was not in her new post in time to persuade Channel 5 to save it.