Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has declared Manchester’s People’s History Museum her ‘favourite museum’.

Speaking at the city’s Science and Industry Museum, which she said told ‘the story of ordinary extraordinary people who contribute to the growth of our country past and present’, she said that she had ‘spent many happy times here in this museum as a kid’ and now continued to visit with her son.

The museum was, said Ms Nandy, ‘a testament to the spirit of a city that has always believed in itself’. She drew attention to the fact that Engels wrote The Condition of the Working Class ‘just down the road’ in Salford.

And she added: ‘That spirit lives on in my favourite museum – the People’s History Museum. It’s funded by the councils of Greater Manchester, and there’s a reason that we do. These are the councils who have always understood that the history of ordinary people and the ideas that drove them can not just help us not just to interpret the past, but can help us navigate the future.’

Giving her first speech as Culture Secretary since taking on the job after the general election, Ms Nandy, the Labour MP for Wigan, set out a vision for ‘unlocking growth and opportunity in the UK’s £170 billion culture, media and sport sectors’.

She promised ‘an end to culture wars’, and said future public appointments would ‘truly reflect our country in all its glorious diversity. Not to fulfil a quota, but to ensure that our government draws on the creative might of all of our people.’

‘When we turn to face the nation again in five years’ time, it is our ambition that we will face a self-confident country, at ease with itself, where all our people see themselves in the story we tell ourselves about ourselves as a nation – and our contribution is seen and valued.’

Press release: Culture Secretary declares culture, media and sport sectors crucial to national growth mission, on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport website.

Speech: Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy speech at the Science and Industry Museum, on the DCMS website.