UK Sticks With Lisa Nandy As Culture Secretary, With Paramount-Warner & BBC Decisions Looming

Andy Burnham, the UK’s new prime minister, has decided to stick rather than twist with his choice of culture secretary.

10 Downing Street has announced that Lisa Nandy will remain in the role overseeing Britain’s film and TV industry, meaning she will extend her stay at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport beyond two years. She is the longest-serving culture secretary since Jeremy Hunt in 2010.

Nandy was widely tipped to be reshuffled into a new role by Burnham. Even BBC director general Matt Brittin told staff on Monday that he thought there could be a new culture secretary.

She will continue to oversee a busy inbox, with her immediate priorities including whether to formally intervene in Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Nandy will also be pivotal to the BBC’s future, as the corporation is currently in talks with the government over a new charter, which will effectively be its operating agreement for years to come.

Other policy priorities include new legislation that would compel YouTube and TikTok to promote public service content from the BBC and other broadcasters.

Some in the entertainment industry would have welcomed a change of culture secretary. Nandy is not viewed as being overly enthusiastic about her brief, with many senior industry figures describing her as aloof.

She is, however, a supporter of the BBC, despite her deep misgivings about the Huw Edwards and MasterChef misconduct scandals, as well as editorial issues like the Glastonbury Gaza crisis.

Nandy described the BBC as a “light on the hill” amid the tide of disinformation and said she wanted the corporation to have a “sustainable long-term funding model” under charter renewal.

These positions are likely to continue, not least because the BBC will have an ally at the heart of government: James Purnell, its former policy and audio chief, will serve as Burnham’s chief of staff.