UK publishing calls on Conservative leadership candidates to back world-leading sector

As the Conservative Party leadership race draws to a close, Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, has written to the Conservative leadership candidates and urged them to commit to five pledges to secure the ongoing economic, cultural, and social contribution of the UK’s world-leading publishing industry.

The letter, penned on behalf of the UKs £6.7 billion publishing industry, calls on Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to recognise the sector’s huge value to the country and its potential to drive much needed job creation in the creative industries and seize new global opportunities to share Britain’s values and ideas around the world.

The pledges detailed in the letter include commitments to:

1. Protect the UK’s gold standard copyright and IP regime
2. Build on publishing’s success in international trade
3. Scrap the last tax on reading, audiobook VAT
4. Ensure DfE’s future curriculum body does not wreck a vibrant free market
5. Promote fair competition in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill

The UK’s publishing industry is a global success story. With more books exported than anywhere else in the world (£3.8 billion), it is vital that the future Prime Minister works alongside the sector to guarantee the ongoing success of the industry, and to help deliver the government’s new aims.