Tristram Hunt, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, has been announced this morning as the new director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

The V&A is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and a charity exempt from registration under the Charities Act of 2011. It is governed by a board of trustees appointed by the Prime Minister. 

Hunt has been an MP since 2010 and served as shadow education secretary under Ed Miliband. He refused to serve under Jeremy Corbyn, who has led the Labour Party since 2015. 

His background is as a historian and is an expert on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is the author of a number of books and has presented television history documentaries. 

His appointment has been confirmed by the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport and will join the V&A “in the coming months”. 

The V&A’s previous director, Martin Roth, who is German, resigned last September after five years in the role, amid reports he was saddened by the rhetoric around Brexit.

V&A ‘delighted’ with the appointment 

V&A Chairman Nicholas Coleridge said: “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Tristram Hunt as director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He has a highly compelling mixture of experience across public life, the arts, history, education and academia, and knows our collections well from his writing and broadcasting. In addition, he is an informed and articulate leader and communicator on numerous facets of culture, both historic and contemporary, and I greatly look forward to working with him at the V&A.” 

Hunt said: “I am delighted and honoured to have been appointed director of the V&A. I have loved the V&A since I was a boy, and today it is a global leader in its unrivalled collections, special exhibitions, academic research and visitor experience. 

“It is a moment of transformation and renewal for the V&A, with the upcoming opening of the new Exhibition Road entrance, and new sites and galleries in Dundee, China and Stratford. I am particularly pleased that, through the V&A ownership of the Wedgwood Collection, my passion for education in Stoke-on-Trent can continue. 

“The combination of the power of the collections and expertise of an inspirational team is what makes the V&A the world’s greatest museum of art, design and performance. I am honoured to take on this exciting opportunity.”

He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a founder of the Stoke-on-Trent Literary Festival and a patron of the British Ceramics Biennial. He as previously a trustee of both the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and a curator of the Mayor of London’s History Festival.

Hunt was on the moderate wing of the Labour Party and his resignation as an MP will trigger a byelection in his constituency.