“Some people think that culture is overhyped and peripheral. A season of opera is less important than the refurbishment of a school, they say. Leaving aside the poverty of imagination and aspiration implicit in such a sentiment, it also ignores hardheaded economic reality: Britain, and London in particular, makes big money from culture.”

British political adviser

Munira Mirza is a British political adviser. She worked with Boris Johnson in City Hall and later at Number 10, where she served as Director of the Policy Unit from 2019 until her resignation in February 2022. Earlier, she was Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture when Johnson was Mayor of London. Her public profile is tied to policy work in government and to the senior advisory roles she held under Johnson.