Politics
The House | Meet The Royal Ballet And Opera Apprentices Proving Timothée Chalamet Wrong
(Asya Verzhbinsky/Alamy)
7 min read
Six times a year, the Royal Ballet and Opera holds school matinees. Matilda Martin meets some of those who went from auditorium to working backstage as it tries to shake off its elitist reputation
Timothée Chalamet claims that nobody cares about opera or ballet. Emma Huntley would like a word.
The 20-year-old loved tailoring but couldn’t quite see how she was going to make a living from it until she was taken on as an apprentice costume maker by the Royal Opera House (now known as the Royal Ballet and Opera) – “a dream come true”.
Some might suspect a cynical attempt to soften its image as an elitist institution but that’s a hard stance to maintain on meeting those like Emma, who are benefiting from a determined effort to widen participation and interest in the art forms.
And the Royal Ballet and Opera points out that it is in its own interests to recruit more diversely to plug the skills gaps needed to keep the show on the road. Each production requires hundreds of technicians, carpenters, costume makers and metalworkers, working alongside archivists and administrators. Among them are the young apprentices training to become the next generation of experts.
Over two years, the apprenticeship courses run by the Royal Ballet and Opera offer trainees the opportunity to learn on the job alongside their studies while receiving the national living wage. Most apprenticeships last two years, with trainees working around 40 hours a week and spending approximately one day of that at college. The House spent an afternoon at the Royal Ballet and Opera to speak with the young people benefiting from the scheme.
“I thought the only way [to here] would be through university, which wasn’t really an option for me,” says Huntley. Today, her work involves sewing sequins to a 1950s dress or fixing the hem on a ballgown for The Sicilian Vespers opera. But she didn’t ever envisage ending up somewhere like this.
For Huntley, a pathway to university would not have been straightforward: “It wasn’t not an option, in that I would never be able to do it. I just knew, because of my financial situation and my family’s, I wouldn’t be able to do it the same way my friends at school were doing it.” While her friends were looking at universities and writing their personal statements, Huntley says she envisioned her path as “either go to college and work part-time or work full-time”.
She later adds: “I thought, best-case scenario, I work as a tailor. I love tailoring, I’m really passionate about it. But this is literally a dream come true.”
Behind the scenes at the Royal Ballet and Opera, a maze of passageways, stretching across multiple floors and four different “core” areas, leads to workshops, the dye room, rehearsal studios and a vast backstage area, stuffed with stage props and scenery, complete with a mechanised floor. So large is the space, and so well organised, that it allows the venue to have up to five shows on rotation at once. The whole space is a hive of activity. Ballerinas hurry past The House to reach the stage where a rehearsal is taking place.
The Royal Ballet and Opera is trying to open the industry to those from all backgrounds. Its schools’ matinee, which is run six times a year, invites pupils to a performance, partnering with funders to subsidise all ticket prices and offer travel grants to schools that need help with transport costs to the theatre. In the interval, pupils receive a presentation about the apprenticeship scheme.
Creative venue technician apprentice Aidan Doswell, 18, once sat in that audience himself. Like Huntley, he never imagined he would one day be working behind the scenes on lighting, sound, and set and stage creation at the Royal Opera House.
“I thought the only way [to here] would be through university, which wasn’t really an option for me… This is literally a dream come true”
“I came from Ashford, so it’s quite a trek away from London, and I was doing a two-year course at my sixth form of tech in theatre,” he recalls.
After attending a school matinee, where he saw Romeo and Juliet, and hearing about the opportunity during the interval, Doswell returned home with his interest piqued and later applied for, and obtained, a place. Now, he sits reflecting on a full-circle moment, a world away from the “tiny” theatre in Ashford.
While the training for the apprentices is funded, and they are paid towards the upper end of the national living wage, accommodation costs are not covered by the scheme. Sarah Waterman, apprenticeships and work experience manager, admits “there is always more to do”.
Waterman explains that the apprenticeship scheme was set up “not only to address skills gaps in the industry, which are not going away anytime soon in certain areas, but also to ensure that we were creating a diverse workforce for the future as well, not just for us, but for the whole theatre industry”.
For the apprentices, seeing a project they have worked on onstage is the ultimate reward. Huntley recalls the first time she saw a costume she had worked on: “It was breathtaking. I felt really blown away.”
Daniel Bugden, 20, a props carpenter technician apprentice who is currently working on a Chernobyl-themed control panel, struggles to find the words. “It’s hard to say. I felt very passionate, definitely very accomplished.” He later adds: “It’s definitely a moment.”
But not every apprentice works directly on the stage. Grace Greenfield, 20, works as an apprentice archives assistant and is grateful that there was an option for her other than university.
It is clear to see Greenfield is in her element, as she naturally rattles off facts and figures about her role, which involves handling photographs, playbills, programmes, negatives, props and even costume collections. She explains how the archives sit across three stores in different locations: one in the Royal Ballet and Opera in London’s Covent Garden; one in Purfleet, Essex; and another in so-called DeepStore that operates from a former salt mine in Cheshire.
Greenfield also easily recalls the opening date of the Royal Opera House in 1732, reflecting that the world of ballet and opera is one that is often seen as elitist and closed off to the public.
She argues that this was not the case many centuries ago: “It was just a musical performance that you could go to, competing with your Shakespeares and everything else out on the market.
“It should be re-examined and maybe seen like that again. The [Royal] Ballet and Opera is trying to do a lot of reputation adjustment to show that it is an accessible art form, and it is just as fun [an] evening out as anything else.”
“What the Opera House is trying to do now is making sure the doors are open to everyone”
Waterman reflects on how they try to break down the barriers between this elitist world and reach the most disadvantaged. “Number one is there’s power in crossing the threshold and, as much as possible, show young people that this is a job backstage, and backstage [here] there’s just lots of skilled people, passionate people. There’s no red velvet or gilt backstage. It’s just a lot of talented people that want to sort of make live theatre happen.”
She also tries “not to lead with the brand”, adding “it is problematic, the Royal Ballet and Opera”. Instead, she emphasises that it is the technicians, electricians, carpenters, tailors that “make ballet and opera”.
The idea that the ballet and the opera are elitist and out-of-touch art forms belonging to another century altogether is something that the industry grapples with, and sometimes finds itself fighting even with those it might hope would be its champions.
Chalamet was met with controversy when he said audiences no longer care about those forms, telling Variety: “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this any more.’”
Holly Bell, a former apprentice who now works in the sound department, thinks Chalamet’s assertion reinforces the importance of what the company is trying to do in breaking down barriers: “What’s important, and what the Opera House is trying to do now, is make sure the doors are open to everyone, and try to break down that stigma about the classical world being a bit closed off.”
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Politics
Politics Home | Andy Burnham Says He Wants To Use Devolution To Bring Down Welfare Spending
3 min read
Andy Burnham has said he would take a “much more devolved” approach to getting people into work and bringing down welfare spending.
Speaking to PoliticsHome in Makerfield on Friday, where he is standing as Labour’s by-election candidate later this month, the Greater Manchester mayor said: “We’ve all got to be concerned with getting the welfare bill down.
“I don’t think there’s any debate about that, to be honest, it’s how you do it.”
He argued that the best way to do so was through a more localised approach, rather than cuts made in Westminster.
“It’s an overhaul that the Whitehall system can’t really make,” he said. “It’s an argument actually for dealing with this in a much more devolved way than it is currently done.”
Burnham – who confirmed in a BBC debate on Thursday that he wants to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer in No 10 if his bid to return to the House of Commons is successful – told PoliticsHome that local and regional authorities should be empowered to give out-of-work people the support they need for mental health problems.
“We don’t have a system that is set up to look and really get to the heart of why somebody isn’t able to sustain themselves in the labour market, and that’s been the journey that I’ve been on as mayor of Greater Manchester.
“But if you do give people what they’re looking for, I think you can support more people into work,” he said.
Welfare has emerged as a thorny issue for the Labour government since being elected in July 2024.
Starmer tried to introduce benefits reforms last year but was forced to abandon the plans by a major Labour backbench rebellion.
Private messages published by the government earlier this week showed Work and Pensions Secretary complaining to former US ambassador Peter Mandelson that “every meeting” he had with Labour MPs was a discussion about “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others”.
A new report authored by former health secretary Alan Milburn found that the total annual cost to the taxpayer of just under one million young people not being in employment, education or training (NEET) is £125bn per year.
Speaking to PoliticsHome, Burnham described the report as a “very significant intervention”.
“I’ve contributed to it, and I think Alan is interested in what we’ve done because we’ve taken a different approach to supporting people into work.
“And this is the thing: The DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) system, I don’t think does do that, because it’s a very narrow approach in this day and age.”
He continued: “The reasons why people, particularly young people, may not be in work would be related to mental health or the housing situation or the debt they may be facing, a whole range of other things that are going on.”
Burnham criticised previous governments for encouraging more than 50 per cent of people to go to university.
“The obsession with the university route began with the Blair government, but then was very much continued by Gove in his reforms, [and] left 50 per cent or more of young people, particularly in an area like this [thinking], well, what about me?
In an interview with The House magazine in Makerfield, Burnham said he is “not going to hold back” on early reform to the House of Lords if he becomes prime minister.
“I can’t justify, personally, 800-plus members of the House of Lords. I don’t think – with great respect to many people in it, because I have true great respect, because there’s some incredible people in there – what the country spends on the House of Lords is actually justified by what the output is,” he said.
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Politics
Politics Home | Andy Burnham Says He Is “Not Going To Hold Back” On “Early Change” To The House Of Lords
Andy Burnham at the launch of his campaign as Labour’s candidate for the Makerfield by-election, 22 May 2026 (PA Images / Alamy)
4 min read
Exclusive: Andy Burnham has told The House magazine that he would support an “early change” to the House of Lords, with reform – including downsizing it – coming by way of the next general election.
The Greater Manchester mayor was speaking at a campaign stop on Friday in the Makerfield constituency, where he is Labour’s parliamentary candidate in a by-election. If he wins on 18 June, he has confirmed that he hopes to replace Keir Starmer in No 10.
Asked by The House whether he still backs turning the Lords into a ‘Senate of Regions and Nations’, with seats for metro mayors included in it, he stood by his support for overhauling the Upper Chamber and said it should be “the first place to look” for cutting “the cost of politics”.
“I wouldn’t rule out quite an early change, and possibly the 2029 general election or beyond, because I’ve long believed that there’s a first stage of Lords reform, which is indirect election that could be linked to a general election, and I just think we can’t delay this any longer,” Burnham said.
“I don’t think we can justify half of our national legislature being unelected. I think this is something that is, in many ways, quite scandalous.
“If you think about this constituency and the feeling here that Westminster looks past it – when you look at the flooding issues it’s got, the illegal tip, poor infrastructure, a whole host of other issues. Is it a surprise to people here that that might be like that when you have a House of Lords that’s largely drawn from within the M25?”
He added: “I can’t justify, personally, 800-plus members of the House of Lords. I don’t think – with great respect to many people in it, because I have true great respect, because there’s some incredible people in there – what the country spends on the House of Lords is actually justified by what the output is.
“I’m just being honest with you. I’m not going to hold back on it, actually, because I just think we’ve allowed this to persist for too long. If you want to cut the cost of politics, that’s the first place to look.”
In an interview with The House in November 2023, Burnham said reform of the Upper Chamber was urgent.
“I heard a narrative when I was in government a lot – that all that constitutional stuff, it’s not really a priority, we’ll get round to it at a different time. I’ve come around to the thinking that you can’t actually do that, that the wiring of the country is part of the problem,” he said before the 2024 general election.
Burnham also told The House on Friday that he maintains his support for changing Labour’s position on standing candidates in Northern Ireland. The party has a longstanding policy of not contesting elections in the devolved nation.
The leadership hopeful said his endorsement of electoral reform, which would introduce a switch to a more proportional voting system, could facilitate the change to Labour’s refusal to field candidates in Northern Ireland.
“Yes, I’ve had a position on that going back. But it would obviously require careful conversations with our sister party, the SDLP, and with other political parties in Northern Ireland. I wouldn’t want to blunder in and create an issue.
“But I do have an in-principle commitment that democracy should allow the range of parties to be represented, and personally I am in favour of more proportional systems, and that allows that approach, because in that type of system it’s not the case of one party not contesting where a sister party is involved. I just think it allows more collaboration between parties.”
Burnham was at a pub in Orrell announcing his call to cut business rates by 20 per cent for pubs and music venues and to remove small, family, high-street businesses, including hairdressers and cafes, from business rates altogether.
He said Labour had “got it wrong on small businesses” and the policy would be funded by raising rates on warehouses used by online tech giants and via action on empty retail spaces on the high street.
A Survation poll published on Thursday put Burnham 10 per cent ahead of his closest rival, Reform candidate Robert Kenyon (49 per cent to 39 per cent).
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Politics
Politics Home | Reform Councillor Claims Restore Britain Would Deport People “Just Because Of Their Colour”
George Finch, the 19 year old running two councils, told The House magazine Restore Britain were akin to the BNP. (Alamy)
3 min read
The teenage Reform UK councillor leading Warwickshire council has claimed that a Restore Britain government would deport people “just because of their colour”.
George Finch, the 19-year-old councillor who is currently in charge of both Warwickshire County Council and Bedworth and Nuneaton Borough Council, said in an interview with The House magazine that he would fear for Sikh and Gurkha communities in his area, who have “fought with us (Britain)” in wars, if Rupert Lowe’s party entered power.
A Restore Britain spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “Finch is talking total bullshit.”
His comments come as Restore Britain looks to challenge Reform UK’s position as the leading right-wing party in the UK.
Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, launched the party after falling out with Farage and being removed from Reform UK following accusations of bullying that he denies. Endorsed by the controversial billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk, Restore Britain is seen as to the right of Reform, promoting policies like the mass deportation of all illegal immigrants and shutting down universities that “brainwash students into hating their own culture”.
The party showed signs of its potential electoral threat to Farage at last month’s local elections. Restore Britain won all 10 seats it contested in Great Yarmouth on 7 May, helping to deny Reform a majority.
Meanwhile, polling published ahead of this month’s crucial by-election in Makerfield suggests that Lowe’s party is eating into the Reform vote in the northwest. A Survation survey published on Thursday put Labour candidate Andy Burnham 10 per cent ahead of Reform’s Robert Kenyon (49 per cent to 39 per cent), with Restore Britain’s Rebecca Shepherd in third place on 8 per cent.
Speaking to The House about the electoral threat posed to Reform by Restore Britain, Finch said the latter was “just a party on social media”: “What are their policies? What are their people?”
He said that several councillors whom he helped get elected for Reform have defected to Lowe’s party, claiming that they realise the sort of party they have joined and “the direction they want to go in”.
“They just think: ‘Oh, well, I don’t like the way Reform is being done’, and you think, ‘right, okay, whatever your thought is, but why them?” said Finch.
He added: “In Bedworth, we’ve got a huge Sikh and Gurkha population that fought with us, and we take pride in celebrating them on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.
“And the whole town comes out, and it’s great when people say, ‘I’m gonna vote Restore.’ The Sikhs and Gurkhas that fought during the war? ‘Oh, yes, we love those people. They’re great.’ Under a Restore government, they’d be gone. No excuse, no reason. Gone, just because of their colour.”
The House magazine’s full interview with George Finch will be published in print and online in June.
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