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.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
great to see the back of mad nad,but what comes next?I’m afraid the hubris of the last government may pale into insignificance compared to the next one.
Yes, really bad when you endure nearly 3 years of that shower and have nothing to cheer about the prospect ahead. Doris was awful but looking at the rest of the party there’s lots of scope in there to plumb new depths.
The ERG must be excited to get a chance to put an extreme right winger in charge of media and culture, and finish off public broadcasting as we know it. They are now pulling the strings, chairman Mark Francois, recently said the ERG supported Truss, because she does what she is told.
Don’t be too hard on her, after all she did champion some of the UK’s cultural highlights , like ‘ I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’