All political lives, famously, end in failure: but not so for Tristram Hunt, the former Labour education spokesman now recast as Director of the V&A. Back in 2017, Hunt managed to leverage his academic credentials to trade in life on the backbenches under Jeremy Corbyn to run one of the world’s largest art museums instead. He now gets a cushty £200,000 in salary, bonus and pension benefits. Not a bad swap!
But is Tristram overcompensating somewhat in a bid to break with his Labour past? For in recent months, the intellectual athenaeum has been lambasted in, unusually, the Guardian of all places, with the liberal organ bemoaning the V&A’s current direction of travel. This week, it reports that a 23-year-old ‘right-wing commentator’ Zewditu Gebreyohanes, who previously worked for the think tank Policy Exchange, was appointed as a museum trustee, serving alongside Ben Elliot, the current Conservative party co-chairman.
The museum has also played host to two Tory fundraisers in November 2021 and June 2022. Labour has been demanding an investigation into why the museum auctioned a private tour as a prize at one of those dinners. And now an FOI by Mr S has shone some light into why the V&A is so keen to host the Tories: according to a brochure sent to party officials, the museum would have made at least an estimated £30,000 from the two events.
Documents disclosed under transparency laws suggest that the Tories have not had any ‘preferential rates’ and opted to use the Raphael Court for its dinner in June 2022. Prices for that venue start at £15,500: the previous fundraiser in November 2021 would likely have cost a similar sum. Guests to the Tory bash also enjoyed the use of the John Madejski Garden for a drinks reception, with guests also able to enjoy the Beatrix Potter exhibition. A spokesman said the Museum is ‘not able to release financial information about the events.’
Is it worth losing elite liberal opinion for a lousy five-figure sum? Perhaps not, though at least the V&A got some of CCHQ’s much-fabled PR advice. After news leaked of the second fundraiser in June 2022, one helpful Tory spinner got in touch with the museum to suggest that ‘if your press team wanted to strengthen its response it would be great if they added something along the lines of being happy to host the Labour party for events if they’re willing to pay the money etc!’
All those culture vultures with such great wisdom: so much for the Tories being the stupid party eh?
This article is free to read
To unlock more articles, subscribe to get 3 months of unlimited access for just $5
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in