Labour would set up the biggest ever arts infrastructure fund in Britain, Mr Corbyn said during an appearance at this weekend’s Edinburgh festival.

The Labour leader also revealed proposals to plough an extra £160 million every year into arts education with the introduction of an arts pupil premium.

He quoted William Morris, telling festival-goers: “I do not want art for a few, any more than I want education for a few or freedom for a few.”

The pledge followed a report commissioned by shadow culture minister Tom Watson which called for more diversity in a performing arts industry  “increasingly dominated by a narrow set of people from well-off backgrounds.”

The report called for the government to address a “class-shaped hole” in the sector, warning “we’ll all be poorer” if progress is not made.

Mr Corbyn said there were far too few regional or working-class voices on television, with a “plethora of well-to-do accents.”

He also criticised Tory education policy, saying: “Don't believe in Michael Gove's Victorian theory of education that only English, maths and science matter. Nobody here is only interested in those three subjects, so why should our children be?”

Mr Corbyn announced that Labour planned to retain free museum entry and committed to ending Tory cuts to libraries, museums and galleries.

“We don't want a return to the Victorian ideal of cultural institutions being the pet projects of the aristocracy,” he said.