Website The Shadow Cabinet | ||
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Appointer Leader of the Opposition Inaugural holder Bryan Gould (As Shadow Secretary of State for National Heritage) | ||
The Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, previously Shadow Secretary of State for National Heritage, is a post in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet. The Shadow Secretary helps hold the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and junior ministers to account and is the lead spokesperson for his or her party on culture, media and sport issues, including obvious ones, such as art funding, and more unexpected ones, like keeping up the Royal Estate. Should the relevant party take office, the Shadow Secretary would be a likely candidate to become Culture Secretary.
The post became necessary when John Major created the Department of National Heritage in 1992. When the Coalition Government took office, they merged the office of Culture Secretary with that of Minister for the Olympics (Jeremy Hunt had shadowed both roles in Opposition). Labour retained as its Olympics spokesperson Tessa Jowell, who had been Olympics Minister from the inception of the office. Because it never merged the responsibilities, it has retained the name "Culture, Olympics and Sport" (as has indeed the Department for Culture, Media and Sport).