Downing Street says the two leaders spoke overnight, after Donald Trump accused the Ukrainian president of being a ‘dictator’Culture secretary Lisa Nandy made a passionate defence of the value of the arts in the UK’s cultural and economic life as she launched a new Labour government initiative, a £270m Arts Everywhere fund for arts venues, museums, libraries and the heritage sector.Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Nandy was challenged that a new European security framework and pressure for increased defence spending was liable to take chunks out of her budget in the near future. She said:Look, we’ve had a decade where funding to the arts, funding for communities has been slashed. We’ve seen culture erased from our classrooms and our communities. It’s economic madness.This is one of the fastest growing industries in the UK – film, music, literature, TV. We export them all over the world. We’ve got countries clamouring to invest here in the UK. Some of the biggest streamers in the world, who want to invest more in the UK, but it takes support from the governmentLast time president Trump was in office, Keir and I met with senior members of the Trump administration and found them to be incredibly pragmatic in the way they go about wanting to solve problems, do deals and get outcomes.That is the mantra that the president has pushed since the moment he was president-elect – he wants to get outcomes, he wants to see things change, and he’s been absolutely clear that he wants to see a solution in Ukraine. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/feb/20/uk-politics-latest-news-starmer-zelenskyy-ukraine-labour-tories
Author : Martin Belam
Publish date : 2025-02-20 09:35:00
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Starmer tells Zelenskyy it was ‘perfectly reasonable’ to suspend elections during war – UK politics live
