George Osborne clashes with No 10 after demand Rishi Sunak chooses British Museum director

George Osborne was involved in a row with No 10 over its attempt to influence the appointment of a new director for the British Museum, it has been claimed.

The former chancellor, who is chairman of the museum, reportedly clashed with Downing Street officials after they demanded that Rishi Sunak should pick the candidate from a shortlist.

Sources close to the process have claimed that trustees on the selection panel were instructed by No 10 to supply the Prime Minister with two names, from which he or his advisors would choose the new director.

Mr Osborne is understood to have rejected Downing Street’s demand, saying it went against customary practice and threatened the independence of the British Museum.

The trustees usually inform the Prime Minister of their decision about the appointment of the new director, in order for it to be formally ratified.

The museum went ahead with the appointment of Nicholas Cullinan, the head of the National Portrait Gallery, as its new director in late March. He is set to take up the new role this summer.

Critics say No 10’s demand was the latest in a long line of attempted interference in the independence of public institutions.

In 2020, the Government tried to veto the appointment of Mary Beard, the classicist, as a trustee of the British Museum when her name was put to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) - for sign-off in 2020.

Professor Beard had been reportedly rejected by Downing Street because of her pro-European views.

However, because five of the 25 seats on the museum’s board can be appointed without any reference to the Government, the trustees went ahead and appointed her themselves.

Mark Jones, the museum’s interim director, told The Guardian on Thursday: “There’s been an increasing politicisation of the nominations to the boards of museums and galleries.”

Speaking in a personal capacity he added: “That seems to me to be a shame because I think the criteria for selection should be their suitability for being on the board and the contribution they can make to the museum or gallery.”

There have been ongoing claims that ministers are intent on removing what they regard as dissenting voices from positions in Britain’s leading museums, galleries and cultural bodies.

Charles Dunstone, a co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, resigned as chair of the National Maritime Museum in May 2021, after an academic whose work calls for decolonising the education curriculum was dropped from the board.

A month earlier, the Government refused to reappoint two women to Channel 4’s board of directors, including one of only two women of colour, against the advice of both the Channel 4 board and the media regulator, Ofcom.

The British Museum, which has been embroiled in an ongoing scandal about the suspected theft of 1,800 artefacts from its collection, would not comment on the claims of interference, but said it was “very pleased” to have been able to appoint Mr Cullinan to the role.

The DCMS said the appointment “was made by the trustees of the British Museum and approved by the Prime Minister as set out in the museum’s founding legislation, the British Museum Act”.

The Act states that “there shall be a director of the British Museum, who shall be a person appointed by the trustees with the approval of the Prime Minister and shall hold office on such terms and subject to such conditions as the [Secretary of State] may direct”.

No 10 was approached for comment.