Sign up to FREE email alerts from CoventryLive - WarwickshireLive Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Shakespeare was a businessman as well as a poet – and he’s still boosting the economy of Warwickshire 450 years after his birth, according to the MP for Stratford.

MP Nadhim Zahawi (Con) urged Ministers to give official recognition to Shakespeare’s birthday on April 23, which is also St George’s Day.

Leading a debate in the House of Commons, Mr Zahawi said Shakespeare bought together British people from every background, and extended Britain’s cultural reach across the world.

He was also an indispensable part of the national curriculum, the MP said.

Shakespeare was born in Stratford in 1564 and baptised on April 26. His date of birth is not actually known, but it is traditionally said to be on April 23.

Mr Zahawi is campaigning for this day to become a bank holiday, but told Ministers that if that was not possible then it could nonetheless be officially recognised by the Government.

He said Shakespeare was “a self-taught, self-made, self-created man”, adding: “A man who gave Britain a voice before there was a Britain. And a man who gave the world its best and truest account of what it means to be human.”

He told MPs: “Uniquely among Elizabethan playwrights, Shakespeare owned a stake in the theatre company for which he wrote. Like all good business owners, he invested in the company, in 1608 helping to finance a second theatre in Blackfriars, just across the river from the more famous Globe.

“Heritage tourism is worth a staggering £26.4 billion to the UK economy, and theatre is worth at least £2.8 billion.

“Shakespeare is a major part of that story; he is worth £355 million to Stratford alone, bringing in 4.9 million visitors a year to a town of just 26,000.

“Some 15,000 jobs – that is one job in every eight - in the Stratford and Warwick areas are associated with tourism. In London, Shakespeare’s Globe accounts for 11% of all London theatre-going.

"I am sure that the Minister will join me in paying tribute to the work of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the Globe and Shakespeare’s England, for their contribution to Britain’s world-class tourism industry.”

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said: “It is 450 years since Shakespeare’s birth and it is remarkable that he is as popular today as he has always been, if not more so.”