IT’S TOUT OF ORDER
Starmer’s vow to end ticket rip-off
KEIR Starmer has pledged to cap concert ticket resale prices to stop fans being ripped off by touts.
The Labour leader also vowed to help more children play music.
He accused the Tories of thinking working people “don’t need culture” and presiding over a “creativity crisis” in schools, with GCSE enrolment in arts subjects down by 47% since 2010.
Mr Starmer said in a speech: “We can’t let access to culture be at the mercy of ticket touts. A Labour government will cap resale prices so fans can see the acts they love at a fair price.”
It is understood resales may be capped at 10% above face value. Labour would also beef up the Competition and Markets Authority to tackle touting.
And Mr Starmer unveiled plans to set up a National Music Education Network to improve access through initiatives like instrument banks.
He spoke at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in Central London, where he played the flute as a boy. Vowing to end the war on culture, he said: “We will build a new Britain out of the ashes of the failed Tory project. Look how the Tory Culture Secretary in 2014 said only the ‘chattering middle classes and champagne socialists’ care about ticket prices.
“They think working people don’t need culture. There is a patronising view working people don’t care about the arts.”
And writing of his own experience below, he says: “For a working class kid like me, music was transformational.”
Mr Starmer also visited the National Theatre, and met the stars of play Nye, about Labour’s NHS founder Nye Bevan.
They think working people don’t need culture
KEIR STARMER SLAMS THE CONSERVATIVES