Tristram Hunt: 'The government needs to cancel the British Council’s debt'

The British Council may have to sell off its art collection to raise funds © PAL Stock / Alamy Stock Photo
The mission of the British Council—a body established in 1934 as a cultural bulwark against fascism and communism—has always been beautifully clear: “to create in a country overseas a basis of friendly knowledge and understanding of the people of this country, of their philosophy and way of life”.
Through the sharing of British music, literature, art and performance, and its oversight of the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the British Council would stimulate “a sympathetic appreciation of British foreign policy, whatever for the moment that policy may be and from whatever political conviction it may spring”.
At a time which seems so worryingly to echo the 1930s—with the rise of nationalism, the undermining of international institutions, and a Hobbesian reversion to brute force—the British Council’s work in promoting cultural exchange, the English language and local capacity development is needed more than ever.
Yet its chief executive, Scott McDonald, has just revealed that the British Council could be forced to sell off its highly significant 9,000-piece British art collection—which includes works by David Hockney, Lucian Freud and Barbara Hepworth among many others—to stave off insolvency. As Jenny Waldman of Art Fund rightly warns, a sell-off would present an appalling precedent for other struggling public bodies. “These collections are not commodities to be cashed in during tough times; they are precious cultural assets, held in trust for future generations,” she said.
The British Council’s immediate crisis stems from a £250m Covid-era government loan, which is subject to an interest repayment of £14m per year. The outstanding debt is £197m, and no amount of online English tutoring is going to clear that. According to McDonald, the British Council is “in real danger of disappearing, probably over a period of a decade.”
Beyond this accounting absurdity sits a more existential question: the seriousness with which the British state is committed to promoting UK soft power in an era of both tight public finances and a highly fraught global order.
The good news is that Foreign Secretary David Lammy clearly recognises the issue. “Soft power is fundamental to the UK’s impact and reputation around the world,” he explained at the launch of the government’s Soft Power Council. “But we have not taken a sufficiently strategic approach to these huge assets as a country. Harnessing soft power effectively can help to build relationships, deepen trust, enhance our security and drive economic growth.” Ministers have now begun working with universities, museums, sports bodies and the private sector to align the UK’s much admired soft power capabilities with its foreign policy priorities.
The bad news is that the UK is falling far behind European and global competitors. While France spends nearly £600m on soft power and boasts 1,200 cultural and educational institutes around the world, the British Council budget is down to £162m and only 170 offices. The UK resource for cultural diplomacy is lower than that of Germany, Spain, Portugal and South Korea, whose investment in Hallyu (the Korean Wave) has reaped such remarkable global rewards (especially among the young). To compound the crisis, the BBC World Service, one of the most trusted providers of independent news and quiet servant of English culture, has announced another round of cost-cutting with the loss of 130 jobs.
And this at a time when the likes of Russia, China and other authoritarian regimes are extending their reach in the digital and public realm, pushing disinformation and conspiracy theories. Today, 16% of all scholarships for citizens from African countries to study abroad are sponsored by China—more than any other country.
If the UK government is serious about soft power, it now needs to cancel the outstanding debt (not least when there is £16bn worth of remaining Covid loans to recoup), and work with the Council on a coherent strategy which draws on the incredible talent of the UK’s artists, musicians, performers and authors to foster British partnerships abroad.
This is especially necessary since the US—our traditional ally in promoting liberal values of democracy, the rule of law and pluralism—is abandoning its post-war role in the world order. Supporting civil society and the Atlanticist legacy, even with all its complexities and historic failings, now falls increasingly to the UK and the British Council.
It’s time to stand up, not sell up.
• Tristram Hunt is the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
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