Ed Sheeran slams Tories for supporting 'bankers over bands' as he backs Labour
Ed Sheeran has blasted the Tories for their lack of support for the arts - accusing them of supporting bankers over bands - as he backs Labour to turn things around.
He’s backed Labour to turn things around and invest in music so children have an opportunity to become a star like him. The Shape Of You singer, 33, attacked Rishi Sunak’s government for “completely stripping the importance” out of the UK’s art communities.
But said he’s optimistic Keir Starmer’s likely new government will improve things.
“I think the new government will be better at it,” said Ed, the most played artist in the UK this year. In an impassioned interview, dad-of-two Ed took aim at the Tories while heaping praise on the creative talents our country has produced.
“What we are famous for is our art,” he said. “We're famous for music with The Beatles. We're famous for painting, Damien Hurst. We're famous for movies. You've got Danny Boyle coming out of here, Christopher Nolan. There's Adele, there's Harry Styles, there's Stormzy, there's me, there's musicians who travel the world and people are like, oh, that's a British musician or that's a British artist or a British actor or actress. And that's what we as a country are proud of.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pictured aboard a train carriage during a visit to train manufacturer Alstom in Derby.
“And the government is just putting importance on maths and banking and we make arms. No one is proud that we make arms and no one is proud that our banking's really good - but they are proud of our art. In terms of art, it's so weird that no importance is being put on it. It's not even that the importance isn't being put on it, it’s completely stripping the importance of it and just being like, this doesn't matter.”
In 2017, Ed was contacted by his old music teacher asking for his help after the government cut funding for his local high school. “I think they had to share between art, music and drama, like £700 pounds per year for all three subjects,” explained Ed. “So I started funding that at my local high school. And then you see a massive uptick in kids doing production, kids doing songwriting, kids doing this.
“I built a recording studio there. There's loads of proper instruments that aren't broken and you just see the school getting better at music.
The Shape Of You star is not only ploughing money into his home county Suffolk’s school arts programmes, but wants to extend it nationwide - to overcome what he feels is a shortfall of cash. “The next part of my career is getting proper, proper funding and art, music, drama back into schools,” he vowed.
“Actually Ireland do a very good job of it. Ireland is very, very into their arts because they know that that's their cultural currency. U2 travel the world and they see that. The Banshees of Inisherin comes out. Everyone goes to watch that movie and island are very, very good at recognising that and funding.
“You see what a difference it makes to. Because I'm not an academic person and in the real world I would be viewed as stupid, but I excelled at music and therefore people think that I'm good at something. So I found it massively helpful to be in a state funded school that really encouraged that.”
Speaking to US comic Theo Von on his This Past Weekend podcast this week, he continued: “I want to segue into music education. It worked so well for me and I know it can work so well for other kids. I'm kind of proof that normal kids can just pick up guitars, work hard and do it.
UK Music's This is Music reported UK music exports generated £4 billion in 2022 while the industry's contribution to the economy was £6.7 billion.
Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, Ed began writing songs around the age of eleven.
His international success began when he appeared on Later... with Jools Holland, where he first performed his debut single, The A-Team, which sold 58,000 copies in the first week. He’s won seven BRIT Awards and four Grammys over his illustrious career and is worth £300million.