'We should play flute duets,’ Sir Keir Starmer said to me. We were in Liverpool, and Starmer had just made his first Labour conference speech as prime minister. I hope he doesn’t hold me to it (I took up the instrument a few years ago as part of a Grade 1-a-thon), though I’m probably safe as I doubt he has much spare time for music-making at the moment. But he certainly used to play, having spent his teenage Saturday mornings at the Guildhall junior department. I know this because [in Liverpool] I was sitting in the front row and, although I was quite surprised to be mentioned (I won’t go into my health story here, but you can easily look me up), my ears really pricked up when he proceeded to reminisce about his time touring Malta with the Croydon Youth Philharmonic. Why? Because music education is central to his government’s mission ‘for opportunities to be there for your children’, and this commitment comes right from the top.
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