Ian McKellen and Julie Walters join stars to call for visa-free touring

Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Julie Walters are among more than 100 names who have signed a letter to Boris Johnson, warning that visa rules for European touring will deal a “disastrous blow” to the industry.

The open letter has also been signed by names including Miriam Margolyes, Tony Robinson, Anne-Marie Duff and Juliet Stevenson, all members of Equity. In it they state they represent “actors, singers, dancers, designers, directors, stage managers, comedians, audio artists, variety performers and creatives” who “want to keep working”.

“But the current Brexit deal is a towering hurdle to that,” the letter warns, adding: “Before, we were able to travel to Europe visa-free. Now we have to pay hundreds of pounds, fill in form after form, and spend weeks waiting for approval – just so we can do our jobs.”

It highlights how creatives have already lost work in Europe or are being turned down for potential employment, “because of the cost and bureaucracy that now comes with hiring British talent” and describes visa requirements as “a disastrous blow” that will hit “those already struggling and marginalised groups the hardest”.

It calls on the government to negotiate new terms with the EU, which would allow creative practitioners to travel to the EU visa-free for work, and for European performers to be able to do the same in the UK.

“Not acting now will do further and irreparable harm to the UK’s creative workforce, our industries and to our standing on the international cultural stage,” it warns.

Equity general secretary Paul W Fleming described freedom of movement for the union’s members as “achievable, desirable and essential”.

The UK government and EU negotiators have blamed each other for the failure to achieve an arrangement, with culture minister Caroline Dinenage recently maintaining that the EU is preventing a deal but that “the door remains 100% open” for it to change its mind.

A government spokesman told the Guardian, which published the letter originally: “We want our cultural and creative professionals to be able to work easily across Europe, in the same way EU creatives are able to work flexibly in the UK. Though the EU rejected proposals that would have allowed this, we hope member states will act on these calls by changing the rules they apply to UK creatives. We’re working urgently with our cultural sectors to resolve any new barriers they face, so that touring can resume as soon as it is safe to do so.”