Photo of Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn

Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn

Photo: Rwendland (Own work) CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikime

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Creative Industries Federation pulls out of election event with Labour

The industry body said it was forced to drop out as Labour would not commit to “proper scrutiny”.

Christy Romer
2 min read

The Creative Industries Federation (CIF) has pulled out of a planned election event with Labour after the party would not commit to “proper scrutiny”.

Although CIF organised a similar event with Conservative Culture Minister Matt Hancock this week, at which he answered questions on Brexit, the industrial strategy and education, CIF has confirmed it will not take part in an event with Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson scheduled to take place in Hull next week.

“As Labour informed us that they were no longer able to devote a similar amount of time to questioning as the other parties have agreed to, we invited them to reconsider,” a CIF spokesperson said.

“When we could not agree, we had no choice but to pull out of the event.”

The campaign group began a series of events with the four largest Westminster parties this week – the Conservatives, Labour, Scottish National Party (SNP) and Liberal Democrats – offering a “rigorous question and answer session” between a senior party representative and CIF members on the arts, creative industries and cultural education.

CIF said it has a “track record for independence” and is non-partisan. “We cannot provide a backdrop for campaign events which do not offer the opportunity for proper scrutiny,” it said.

It continued: “We understand Labour plans to go ahead with the event on Monday and if you still wish to attend we suggest you contact the party directly.”

When asked why the political party was not able to devote time to questioning requested by CIF, a Labour Party spokesperson told AP: “Unfortunately, we were unable to agree a format for the event with the Creative Industries Federation but we look forward to working with them in the future.”

CIF's event with the Liberal Democrats was re-scheduled following a suspected terrorist attack in Manchester on Monday evening.

This article was updated on 23/05/2017 to include a comment from the Labour Party and to highlight the re-scheduling of the CIF event with the Liberal Democrats.