Brexit festival hailed a success by chief

The “Festival of Brexit” has been hailed as “very successful” by its director despite participation figures for the £120 million project falling very short of its 66 million target.

Unboxed, a Government programme of live and digital events funded by taxpayers’ money, was attended by three million people across 107 towns and villages in the UK, according to its organisers.

Director Phil Batty said that overall 18m people took part in events held this year from March to October, mainly in the form of digital participation such as watching online broadcasts.

However, in August, Politics Home reported the festival had received 238,000 visitors with one month to go.

Mr Batty defended the project for providing “cultural experiences” to people across the UK.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “These cultural experiences have showcased the very best of science, the very best of tech and the very best of the arts through live and through digital.

“Sixty-six million was never a visitor target for this programme,” he added.

“It was a creative ambition for the programme, it was an ambition because we wanted to be really inclusive for the whole of the UK, and I think we’ve delivered that.

“I believe it has been very successful because we’ve seen that whether that’s live events in towns and villages there’s been an economic boost, but also we’ve seen major free cultural projects provided to millions of people right across the UK.”

Last month, a crossparty parliamentary committee asked the National Audit Office to investigate how the project was managed.