Culture secretary Nadine Dorries – in charge of Welsh broadcasting – resigns from Cabinet

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has announced that she is stepping down before Tuesday’s UK Government reshuffle by new Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Although culture and sport are devolved to Wales the resignation may be a significant one as the UK Government retains control over broadcasting in Wales – including BBC Wales and S4C.

A ‘source close to’ Nadine Dorries told the Daily Mail: “Nadine has agonised over this as she is 100 per cent supportive of Liz. But she has decided now is the right time to leave Cabinet.”

Nadine Dorries is said to be heading for the Lords, which would trigger a by-election in her Mid-Bedfordshire constituency where she has a large majority over Labour in second place.

She had called earlier this year for S4C to contribute to the debate on how it could be funded if the licence fee comes to an end in 2027.

Nadine Dorries told the House of Commons in January that the UK Government’s intention was that the licence fee be done away with in five years’ time.

In a letter to S4C she said that, as their funding was dependent on the licence fee, they would need to contribute to the debate about what came next.

At the time, an expert warned that scrapping the licence fee could constitute an “existential threat” to the Welsh language.

Prof. Richard Wyn Jones, Director of Cardiff University’s Wales Governance, warned that the announcement was a threat to the futures of both S4C and Radio Cymru, which depended on the survival of public service broadcasting.

Both S4C and BBC Wales will watch Tuesday’s reshuffle with interest to see if the new Secretary of State for Culture is likely to make any change to Nadine Dorries’ policy.