Chris Bryant has been named as shadow culture secretary, replacing acting party leader Harriet Harman who has held the position since 2011.
Bryant, who won a £30,000 damages payout in January 2012 after his phone was hacked by the News of the World, has been a shadow minister for culture, media and sport since December last year.
In January, Bryant said that the arts world must encourage diversity beyond those from privileged backgrounds as well as fairer funding to address a “cultural drought” afflicting areas outside London and the south-east.
The Rhondda MP has been a key antagonist in the phone-hacking saga. In 2003 he was one of a committee of MP’s on the culture, media and sport select committee to get then Sun editor Rebekah Brooks to admit: “We have paid the police for information in the past”.
Bryant also gave evidence at the Leveson inquiry into press standards and ethics. In 2012, Bryant pushed David Cameron during Prime Minister’s Question Time to publish all correspondence between himself and Brooks, asking if his refusal was because they were “too salacious or embarrassing” to reveal.
