What is it about the arts that frightens our politicians?

There is nothing elitist about loving the high arts, writes David Lister. Perhaps a trip to the opera could teach Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer a thing or two

Theatre and opera can change your life (AP)

The late Denis Healey famously said that all politicians should have a “hinterland”. The former Labour chancellor and deputy leader certainly had a hinterland. He played the piano, was passionate about poetry and loved art and literature.

Rishi Sunak’s hinterland is harder to discern. Though it doesn’t quite pass the Healey test, he was pictured recently at a Test, watching the Ashes at Lord’s. Keir Starmer turns up at Arsenal from time to time. Theresa May was a keen walker. Boris Johnson – well, his hinterlands are perhaps best left unexplored.

It does seem that our leaders are happy to show themselves at sporting events, happy to engage in sporting recreations, happy to fly the flag at the odd movie premiere or pop concert. But when did you last see a prime minister at the opera or theatre, let alone boasting about their attendance?

They are strangely coy about any engagement with what are still somewhat annoyingly referred to as the “high arts”. Back in the Blair years, a National Theatre insider told me that Tony Blair had gone to the NT to see a performance of King Lear, but specifically requested that his attendance there be kept private. It seems it would have been infra dig for a Labour leader to have a passion for Shakespeare. Certainly, Blair had no such scruples about having the Britpop crowd round to drinks at No 10, and being very public about it.

What is it about theatre and opera that frightens our leaders so? Can it really be that our current prime minister and most of his predecessors are philistines? Well, we could put that to the vote, and the result might be scary. But I suspect there is a more sinister reason for their depressing lack of interest. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that they are terrified they would look elitist and out of touch if they were caught on camera applauding a mezzo-soprano at Covent Garden, or being spied deep in thought during Ibsen on the South Bank. What might it do to the PM’s approval ratings?

It’s such nonsense. Aside from the technical skills on show, theatre and opera can change your life. They have certainly changed mine, making me question and explore my identity and examine anew issues of love and loss. But maybe there is no time for that when you are more concerned with lamenting the nation’s lack of passion for maths. The UK, Mr Sunak said when launching his policy for every child to study maths to the age of 18, has “an anti-maths mindset”. I would argue that our prime minister has an anti-culture mindset.

The prime minister may not have noticed – I suspect he hasn’t – but there is currently a crisis in opera in this country, with the Arts Council imposing savage cuts on leading opera companies such as English National Opera. The Arts Council chief executive has even said that he favours opera being performed in car parks, another ridiculous “anti-elitist” sideswipe.

What a difference it could have made to this debate if Rishi Sunak had stood up in the Commons and said “As a keen operagoer myself, I am deeply concerned at what is going on.” Some hope! His official spokesman was more than happy to give the PM’s views on the Ashes stumping controversy but on the decimation of opera in the UK, not a word.

And don’t look to the coming election campaign, which is not that far away, to change things. I have followed election campaigns for decades, and through those three or four-week campaigns there are daily press conferences and a full-day focus on health, education and the economy (or sometimes, if they feel like a change-up, the economy, education and health). Not once over the decades has there been a day of an election campaign devoted to the arts. And I will confidently predict that the next election campaign will be no different.

People go out all the time to see a show or a play or an opera, yet politicians convince themselves that there are no votes in it. Go figure.

Aside from the genuine pleasure and enrichment that Sunak, Starmer et al would gain from attending opera and theatre on a regular basis, it would send out a genuinely important political message. It’s generally acknowledged that we lead the world in theatre, and it is a major driver in the tourist economy. Does Sunak not want to promote and personally endorse it as one of his country’s great achievements? By doing so he could increase the benefits to the economy still further. Do the math, Mr Sunak.

Does he not want to act as a role model encouraging the young (and the not-so-young) to embrace opera and classical music? How many Proms is he going to this summer, I wonder?

Even more, he could and should rid both himself and the country of the notion that it is elitist to love the high arts. Yes, enjoy and be seen at sporting events which signal the prowess of the national team. But also enjoy and be seen at cultural events which proclaim the prowess of our individual performers and national arts companies. Make speeches about them, give them a mention at PMQs.

Rearrange your diary now, Mr Sunak. Block out an evening a week to sample the richness of theatre and opera within walking distance of your front door. You could be the poster boy for British culture; for a sphere of our national life that boosts the economy, thrills, chills and enriches the soul. Hell, you might even enjoy it!

Meanwhile, I continue to dream that one Wednesday Mr Sunak’s first answer at PMQs will be: “This afternoon I have meetings with ministerial colleagues, and then I shall be going to Covent Garden to see the marvellous Royal Opera perform Verdi’s Il Trovatore.”