BRITAIN’S new Arts Minister was sacked by a French theatre after it ran up huge debts.
Andy Burnham made arts exec Ruth Mackenzie a peer last month so she could take up the Government role.
Ruth Mackenzie, Britain’s new Arts Minister, was sacked by a French theatre after it ran up huge debts Credit: AFP
Andy Burnham made arts exec Ms Mackenzie a peer last month so she could take up the Government role Credit: Getty
The pair were special advisers to former Culture Secretary Chris Smith in Tony Blair’s first Government.
But MPs questioned her appointment after it emerged she was fired from a historic Parisian theatre in 2020.
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She served nearly three years as artistic director at the Théâtre du Châtelet before being booted out amid managerial and financial concerns.
It ran up a multi-million-euro deficit due to a series of struggling projects.
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They included a loss of more than £855,000 on a production of Singin’ in the Rain and a costly immersive reconstruction of Soviet life.
French audit findings said her appointment produced a governance crisis.
By the time a new director took over in 2023, it had recorded a cumulative deficit since 2017 of £4million.
After she was fired she said: “I can only assume it’s because I’m a woman and foreign.”
Shadow Culture Secretary Nigel Huddleston said last night: “The woman who lost a million euros on Singin’ in the Rain is now deciding how taxpayers’ money is spent.”
She will serve under Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.
A source close to Ms Nandy said: “She is an asset to the Government, brings a wealth of experience, and her appointment has been rightly welcomed.”
