Marco Longhi (Dudley North) asked the Government to review allocations by the Culture Recovery Fund
Cultural projects run by people who ‘hate our history and seek to rewrite it’ should be barred from receiving taxpayers’ support, a Tory MP said today.
Marco Longhi, MP for Dudley North, asked the Government to review allocations by the £1.5bn Culture Recovery Fund, which will give money to heritage groups, museums and other venues to help them recover from coronavirus.
Mr Longhi told MailOnline he was concerned about recent attempts to ‘re-evaluate’ history – such as the National Maritime Museum’s bid to challenge Lord Horatio Nelson’s hero status and the National Trust’s ‘colonial countryside’ project.
He called such initiatives ‘a form of Marxism applied to our cultural and heritage sector’ carried out by people ‘who want to apply today’s standards to events and people of decades and hundreds of years ago’.
The National Maritime Museum recently received £485,000 as part of the fund, while the National Trust has also been handed an undisclosed amount.
Speaking in the House of Commons today, Mr Longhi asked culture minister Nigel Huddleston: ‘The £1.5 billion Culture Recovery Fund has provided a lifeline to the culture and heritage sector during the pandemic.
‘Does the minister agree though that public money should not be spent on ideologically motivated projects by people who hate our history and seek to rewrite it?
‘And will he review funding allocations accordingly, please?’
Mr Longhi told MailOnline he was concerned about recent attempts to ‘re-evaluate’ history – such as the National Trust’s ‘colonial countryside’ project. Chartwell, Churchill’s home in Kent, was featured in the study
Responding for the Government, Mr Huddleston said: ‘I can assure my honourable friend that the Culture Recovery Fund money is awarded by our arms-length bodies according to a strict set of criteria, and the funding goes to organisations in need of serious financial support and not for ideological projects.’
In October, the National Maritime Museum announced it was going to review Lord Nelson’s legacy as part of its efforts to challenge Britain’s ‘barbaric history of race and colonialism’.
The museum in Greenwich, London, holds the hero admiral’s love letters and the coat he wore when he was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 – widely seen as Britain’s greatest naval victory.
Internal documents reveal the museum seeks to capitalise on the ‘momentum built up by the Black Lives Matter movement’ and address the Royal Navy’s links to slavery.
After the British made the slave trade illegal in 1807, the Royal Navy became a police force against the barbaric practice.
Mr Longhi has also previously criticised the National Trust’s Colonial Countryside project, which sought to identity imperial links with Britain’s stately homes.
Mr Longhi also referred to a bid by the National Maritime Museum’s bid to challenge Lord Horatio Nelson’s hero status. Pictured is his statue in Trafalgar Square
The Black Lives Matter-inspired initiative – which received £99,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a further £60,000 from the Arts Council – linked almost 100 properties to British colonialism and the slave trade.
Trafalgar: How Nelson saved Britain from the threat of invasion by Napoleon
It was fought of the coast of Spain and was to be Lord Nelson’s (pictured) last and greatest victory against the French
The 1805 naval Battle of Trafalgar is considered one of the most divisive naval battles in history and saw a British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson defeat a combined French and Spanish fleet.
It was fought off the coast of Spain and was to be Lord Nelson’s last and greatest victory against the French. The battle began after Nelson caught sight of a Franco-Spanish force of 33 ships.
Normally opposing fleets would form two lines and engage in a clash of broadsides until one fleet withdrew, but when planning to engage with the enemy, Nelson divided his 27 ships into two divisions.
He signalled a famous message from the flagship: ‘England expects that every man will do his duty.’ In five hours of fighting, the British devastated the enemy fleet, destroying 19 enemy ships.
A French sniper fatally shot Nelson in the shoulder and chest. He quickly realised he was going to die and was taken below deck where he lost his life about 30 minutes before the end of the battle.
After being informed that victory was imminent, the Admiral’s last words were ‘Now I am satisfied. Thank God I have done my duty.’
Members threatened to cancel their subscriptions while historians accused the Trust of being ‘unfair’ after the homes of Winston Churchill and Rudyard Kipling were among the homes highlighted.
On Churchill’s home in Kent, Chartwell, the report draws on his leadership during the Bengal Famine of 1943, his ‘exceptionally long, complex and controversial life’ and his position as Secretary of State for the Colonies (1921-1922) as the reason for its inclusion on the list.
Despite noting his opposition to slavery, the home of poet William Wordsworth – Allan Bank in the Lake District – is included because his brother, John, served as Commander of an East India Company ship in 1801 and captained two successful voyages to China.
Criticism grew that it emerged that many of the nine-strong team of university historians had espoused Woke views that endorsed concepts around critical race theory, which is highly controversial.
A spokesman for Mr Longhi said: ‘There have been several institutions who have set out to ‘re-evaluate’ history. For example the National Maritime Museum who wanted to reassess Nelson’s hero status.
‘Many of these heritage institutions receive substantial revenue and grant funding from the taxpayer and even individual donations and memberships may have tax gift aid elements.
Marco asks if it is right that these institutions should use taxpayers’ money to effectively besmirch our heroes to suit their left wing woke narrative?
‘It is a form of Marxism applied to our cultural and heritage sector. They want to apply today’s standards to events and people of decades and hundreds of years ago.’
A National Trust spokesman said it ‘has high standards when it comes to political impartiality among its employees including in their social media output’.
She added: ‘We often work with independent people who bring a range of expertise and their own perspectives.
‘Colonial Countryside is a creative writing project where children can explore aspects of history and make their own responses.
‘National Trust staff worked alongside academics, including those from the University of Leicester, to enable them to explore National Trust properties.’
National Trust properties named and shamed on ‘Woke-washing’ list that received £160,000 in taxpayers’ and lottery money
Buckland Abbey
One of the properties being looked at is Buckland Abbey, the Devon home of Sir Francis Drake
Buckland was originally a Cistercian abbey founded in 1278 by Amicia, Countess of Devon and was a daughter house of Quarr Abbey, on the Isle of Wight.
It remained an abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII.
In 1541 Henry sold Buckland to Sir Richard Grenville who, working with his son Roger, began to convert the abbey into a residence.
Roger died in 1545, leaving a son, also named Richard Grenville, who completed the conversion. He eventually sold Buckland to Drake in 1581.
Drake lived in the house for 15 years, as did many of his descendants until 1946, when it was sold to a local landowner, Arthur Rodd, who presented the property to the National Trust in 1948.
The abbey has been open to the public since 1951. It was given to the National Trust in 2010
Dyrham Park
William Blaythwayt built this large mansion house for himself at Dyrham Park near Bristol
The mansion was created in the 17th century by William Blathwayt.
William Blathwayt was an English diplomat, public official and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1685 and 1710.
He established the War Office as a department of the British Government and played an important part in administering the colonies of North America.
Blaythwayt built a large mansion house for himself at Dyrham Park near Bristol, which he decorated with numerous Dutch Old Masters and sumptuous fabrics and furnishings.
His descendants sold a large part of his art collection in 1765, but some have been purchased back or remain at Dyrham Park.
Penrhyn Castle
Owned by the Pennant family, the trust claims that Penrhyn is an example of how wealth derived from slavery shaped the built environment of Wales
Built in the early 19th century, its architecture, opulent interiors and fine art collection lean on a long history of sugar and slate fortunes, social unrest and the longest-running industrial dispute in British history, according to the National Trust.
Owned by the Pennant family, the trust claims that Penrhyn is an example of how wealth derived from slavery shaped the built environment of Wales.
A staunch anti-abolitionist, Richard Pennant’s fortune – acquired from sugar plantations in Jamaica that used enslaved labour – funded roads, railways, schools, hotels, workers’ houses, churches and farms in North Wales.
The Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Port Penrhyn, established by the Pennants, dominated the Welsh slate industry for almost 150 years.
Kedleston Hall
Kedleston Hall in Kedleston, Derbyshire is the inherited home of the Curzon family
Kedleston Hall is a ‘temple to the arts’ designed by the architect Robert Adam.
It was commissioned in the 1750s by Nathaniel Curzon whose ancestors had resided at Kedleston since the 12th century.
It was inherited George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India between 1899 and 1905.
It houses objects he amassed during his travels in South Asia and the Middle East, and in his role imposing British rule in India.
His ‘Eastern Museum’ displays religious, military and domestic objects, arranged from the perspective of the coloniser, along with ceremonial gifts.