Lloyd-Webber issued a clarion call on Thursday for a crackdown on illegal downloading as he attacked the internet as a “Somalia of unregulated theft and piracy”. The composer behind Cats and Phantom of the Opera told the House of Lords that Britain was rapidly losing its place as a fertile environment for creative talent. “The question that occurs to me is whether, in 10 years time, Britain will be a place that the Beatles could have emerged from,” he says.

Lord Lloyd-Webber’s speech is the latest salvo in defence of the UK’s creative industry, which is worth £60bn a year and employs 1m people directly.

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