Chris Bryant tells James Blunt to 'stop being so blooming precious'

Chris Bryant thinks the arts are dominated by people from privileged backgrounds. Credit: Lewis Whyld/PA/ Britta Pedersen

Shadow Culture Secretary Chris Bryant has responded to criticism from singer James Blunt over his comments that people from privileged backgrounds "dominate the arts".

Mr Blunt was unhappy with the minister's comments and called him a "classist gimp" and a "wazzock".

ITV News' Political Correspondent Libby Weiner reports:

Mr Bryant's response has been published by the Guardian and the entire letter is below:

Dear James

Stop being so blooming precious. I’m not knocking your success. I even contributed to it by buying one of your albums. I’m not knocking Eddie Redmayne, either. He was the best Richard II I have ever seen.

If you’d read the whole of my interview, you’d have seen that I make the point that the people who subsidise the arts the most are artists themselves. Of course that includes you. But it is a statement of the blindingly obvious that that is far tougher if you come from a poor family where you have to hand over your holiday earnings to help pay the family bills.

I’m delighted you’ve done well for yourself. But it is really tough forging a career in the arts if you can’t afford the enormous fees for drama school, if you don’t know anybody who can give you a leg up, if your parents can’t subsidise you for a few years whilst you make your name and if you can’t afford to take on an unpaid internship.

You see the thing is I want everyone to take part in the arts. I don’t want any no-go areas for young people from less privileged backgrounds. And I’m convinced that we won’t be Great Britain if we waste great British talent in the arts. You seem to think talent will always out. My fear is that someone like Stanley Baker, the son of a disabled miner in the Rhondda, who rose to be one of Britain’s greatest film actors (Zulu), would have found it even harder to make it today.

That’s why we need more diversity at every level in the arts – in education, in training, on-screen, on stage and backstage – and we need to break down all the barriers to taking part so that every talent gets a chance.

Yours bluntly

Chris