Lucy Frazer, MP who made Scottish “slavery” joke in Parliament, promoted to Culture Secretary

Lucy Frazer, the MP who hit headlines when she made a controversial slavery joke, has been promoted to Culture Secretary by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The MP for South East Cambridgeshire made a joke in the House of Commons in 2015 about sending Scottish people to the colonies as slaves, a video of which surfaced in 2020 following discussions about Britain’s role in the slave trade in the wake of Black Lives Matter.

“[Cambridgeshire] is the home of Oliver Cromwell, who defeated the Scots at Dunbar, incorporated Scotland into his Protectorate and transported the Scots as slaves to the colonies,” she said at the time. “Now there is an answer to the West Lothian question – but not one that of course I would recommend.”

The West Lothian question asks whether MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should be able to vote on matters that only affect England.

Now, Frazer has been promoted by Rishi Sunak in a mini cabinet reshuffle. He has created four new departments – Energy, Security and Net Zero, headed by Grant Shapps, Business and Trade, led by Kemi Badenoch, while former Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan becomes Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary. Frazer, meanwhile, will lead a revamped Culture, Media and Sports Department.

She is the fifth Tory politician to be Culture Secretary in just eight months, and the 15th person overall in the last 12 years under Conservative party rule.

In her new position, Frazer faces ongoing pressure to solve issues related to Brexit’s impact on the touring music industry, the potentially excessive power of streaming companies, and the ongoing threats to grassroots music venues. Both Sunbird Records in Darwen and Ironworks in Inverness closed permanently in the last few days, and the Music Venue Trust estimates that one grassroots venue is shutting down each week in the UK at present.

The MVT appeared in the Houses of Parliament alongside patron Frank Turner last week to present its 2022 Annual Report, which lays out the value of the sector to both the UK economy and the music industry, as well as the grave danger that venues in the UK face without urgent action.

The MVT called on the eight proposed new arenas that are being built in the country to “contribute to the security of the wider music ecosystem by investing a percentage of every ticket they sell into the grassroots music ecosystem”, or else not be allowed to open.

NME reached out to those venues for a response, and had replies from Co-Op Live in Manchester, YTL Arena in Bristol and Sunderland City Council. You can read their responses here.

Numerous grassroots venues across the country recently spoke to NME about the “perfect storm” they face from the cost of living crisis, Brexit, cancelled shows and music fans’ last minute decisions on showing up.

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