Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Incumbent
Tom Watson

since 7 October 2016
Appointer Leader of the Opposition
Inaugural holder Bryan Gould (As Shadow Secretary of State for National Heritage)
Website The Shadow Cabinet

The Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, previously Shadow Secretary of State for National Heritage, is a post in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet. The Shadow Secretary helps hold the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and junior ministers to account and is the lead spokesperson for his or her party on culture, media and sport issues, including obvious ones, such as art funding, and more unexpected ones, like keeping up the Royal Estate. Should the relevant party take office, the Shadow Secretary would be a likely candidate to become Culture Secretary.

The post became necessary when John Major created the Department of National Heritage in 1992. When the Coalition Government took office, they merged the office of Culture Secretary with that of Minister for the Olympics (Jeremy Hunt had shadowed both roles in Opposition). Labour retained as its Olympics spokesperson Tessa Jowell, who had been Olympics Minister from the inception of the office. Because it never merged the responsibilities, it has retained the name "Culture, Olympics and Sport" (as has indeed the Department for Culture, Media and Sport).

Shadow Secretary Took office Left office Political party Shadow Cabinet
Bryan Gould MP 18 July 1992 29 September 1992 Labour John Smith
Ann Clwyd MP 29 September 1992 21 October 1993 Labour
Mo Mowlam MP 21 October 1993 21 July 1994 Labour
Chris Smith MP 21 July 1994 19 October 1995 Labour Tony Blair
Jack Cunningham MP 19 October 1995 2 May 1997 Labour
The Rt Hon Virginia Bottomley MP 2 May 1997 11 June 1997 Conservative John Major
Shadow Secretary Took office Left office Political party Shadow Cabinet
The Rt Hon Francis Maude MP 11 June 1997 1 June 1998 Conservative William Hague
Peter Ainsworth MP 1 June 1998 18 September 2001 Conservative
Tim Yeo MP 18 September 2001 23 July 2002 Conservative Iain Duncan Smith
John Whittingdale OBE MP 23 July 2002 6 November 2003 Conservative
Julie Kirkbride MP 6 November 2003 19 June 2004 Conservative Michael Howard
John Whittingdale OBE MP 19 June 2004 6 May 2005 Conservative
The Rt Hon Theresa May MP 6 May 2005 8 December 2005 Conservative
Hugo Swire MP 8 December 2005 2 July 2007 Conservative David Cameron
Jeremy Hunt MP 2 July 2007 11 May 2010 Conservative
The Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw MP 11 May 2010 8 October 2010 Labour Harriet Harman
Ivan Lewis MP 8 October 2010 7 October 2011 Labour Ed Miliband
The Rt. Hon. Harriet Harman QC MP 7 October 2011 11 May 2015 Labour
Chris Bryant MP 11 May 2015 13 September 2015 Labour Harriet Harman
Michael Dugher MP 13 September 2015 5 January 2016 Labour Jeremy Corbyn
Maria Eagle MP 6 January 2016 27 June 2016 Labour
Kelvin Hopkins MP 28 June 2016 7 October 2016 Labour
Tom Watson MP 7 October 2016 Incumbent Labour

See also


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