“Classist” war as Blunt tells “vote hungry” MP to leave the arts alone

Harrow-educated Blunt sent a stinging letter to Mr Bryant, Labour’s shadow arts minister after the MP suggested artists with a private-school education found it easier to make it in show business.

The You’re Beautiful singer said he had made it in the industry despite being repeatedly “scoffed at for being too posh”.

Blunt explained it was his own hard work and determination that had caused him to succeed, despite his schooling, military service and accent.

He told Bryant: “No one helped me at boarding school to get into the music business. I bought my first guitar with money I saved from holiday jobs (sandwich packing!).

“I was taught the only four chords I know by a friend. No-one at school had any knowledge or contacts in the music business, and I was expected to become a soldier or a lawyer or perhaps a stockbroker.”

He went on to say: “And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working-class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance.”

The singer added iLabour’s “populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas” were damaging the UK.

Bryant clarified his points in a letter of his own, in which he told Blunt to “stop being so blooming precious”. He said he was not knocking his success but stating the “blindingly obvious that is far tougher if you come from a poor family.