DCMS red-faced after Dowden’s claim theatre received emergency grant

Minack Theatre in Cornwall has received an apology from DCMS after Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden wrongly claimed it had benefitted from the Culture Recovery Fund.

The venue hosted spouses of G7 leaders, including Carrie Symonds and Jill Biden, over the weekend.

Dowden quickly deleted his tweet claiming it was "one of more than 650 theatres helped through Covid with support from the £2bn Culture Recovery Fund" after the theatre called out his mistake:

"We did not benefit… as we were not eligible to apply. It turned out having a good level of cash reserves meant we had to fend for ourselves."

Executive Director Zoe Curnow called Dowden's attempt to score a political point "unfortunate".