Festival of Brexit to receive £29m in government funding

Martin Rowson's front page image focusing on the Festival of Brexit Britain - Credit: Archant

The “Festival of Brexit” is set to receive £29 million in funding amid backlash the money could have been spent on free school lunches.

Britain’s “Festival of Brexit” – known formally as Festival UK 2022 – is on track to receive a lump sum of funding in this Wednesday’s spending review.

Festival officials have said £120 million – of which the £29 million is part of – will be spent on “show-stopping events” to showcase British art, culture, and tech to “boost national pride and celebrate what it means to be British”.

The government is also expected to announce £152 million for post-Covid partying in 2022, as well as funds for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham for next summer.

The announcement comes after the pay of four million public sector workers were put on freeze, potentially saving the Treasury £2.5 billion in the first year, according to a Tory-linked think tank.

It also follows calls to fund free school lunches over the holidays, costed at £20 million – an initiative the Tories had initially refused to support.

Ministers have since unveiled a £400m long-term school holidays fund, but it came too late for the October half term.