Lords Grand Committee — sitting of 9 July 2026: transcript & video

00:08 - 00:21

Speaker 1

Question for short debate: freedom of contemporary cultural boycotts. And may I remind noble Lords that the time limit is strictly one hour. Baroness Fox of Buckley.

00:21 - 02:30

Speaker 2

My Lords, I'm delighted to have the chance to bring the government's and House's attention to the themes in this recent report, The New Boycott Crisis. If we value art as a crucial mirror on society, the corruption of our reflects social trends right back at us, and we should look back closely. So many thanks to those noble Lords who are doing that today. The report was launched here in Westminster at the end of April, alongside the Art Beyond Boycott toolkit. It was a packed room and lots of cross-party attendance.

The authors are co-founders of Freedom in the Arts, Rosie Kay, an award-winning choreographer, and Denise Fahmy, a senior arts professional, who teamed up with Reading University's Professor Jo Phoenix. All three have experienced the vicious consequence of cancel culture. They combined their personal insights with oodles of professional knowledge to provide a multi-layered investigation into how boycotts operate against different art forms, and not just looking at individual artists, but at gatekeepers such as venues, agents, managers and producers. Using survey data and qualitative interviews, the report shows how even the threat of cultural boycotts are leading to anticipatory cancellation, institutional anxiety, silent boycotts and self-censorship. The report is so on the money, it got extensive media coverage even in the same crowded week of the local elections.

And significantly, it was picked up by specialist publications such as Arts Professional, the Museums Journal, Chortle, Mixmag, no doubt because it cut through due to its insights into the genuinely heartbreaking stories of individual artists brought to financial and reputational personal ruin by boycotts. And you can't get more personal than being cancelled because of your identity. As the report documents, that's the fate of so many Jewish artists today. Perhaps this is nothing new. As we head into August and Edinburgh Festival season, I recall years of participating in that wonderful artistically rich atmosphere when the Academy of Ideas put on arts debates and live reviewing at Fringe and the Book and International Festivals.

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