Starmer tells Zelenskyy it was ‘perfectly reasonable’ to suspend elections during war – UK politics live

Kiran Stacey is a political correspondent for the Guardian based in Westminster

The former head of the Foreign Office has warned Rachel Reeves not to cut Britain’s international aid spending, amid signs the chancellor is willing to raid the development budget to help pay for higher defence spending.

Simon McDonald, the former lead civil servant at the Foreign Office, said it would damage Britain’s global reputation if Reeves chose to reduce aid as she looks for savings across Whitehall in this year’s spending review.

Government sources have told the Guardian the aid budget is one of a number of areas being eyed up for savings, with the chancellor demanding that ministers justify every item of government spending.

But with the US president, Donald Trump, having recently frozen the US aid programme, McDonald warned such a move would have serious implications for the world’s poorest people.

He told the Guardian: “At times of financial need, development assistance is an easy target for trimming because international assistance is not generally voters’ priority.

“I hope the Treasury is not sharpening its knife for further cuts: not only has the UK’s international reputation taken a knock from the 2020 cut, the international need for such help is greater than ever with the slashing of USAid.”

Read more of Kiran Stacey’s exclusive report here: Former Foreign Office head warns Reeves not to cut international aid

Graeme Wearden has some worrying news for chancellor Rachel Reeves here:

Confidence among UK consumers has dropped off a cliff since last summer, as people – particularly women – grow more worried about the state of the economy, and their own finances.

A new survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Opinium has found that the public’s expectations for the economy worsened for a fifth month running in February.

Households are also gloomier about their own personal finances, as they anticipate further price rises in the shops – as retailers pass on higher taxes.

February’s drop in confidence continues a decline that started last July, when the Labour party won the general election – and swiftly began warning about ‘tough choices’ and ‘painful decisions’ to fix the country’s finances.

You can read more of Graeme Weardon’s live business coverage here: UK consumer confidence sinks to new low

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 government

That’s why today, on the 60th anniversary of Jenny Lee’s seminal arts white paper, we’re launching the Arts Everywhere fund.

Too many people have seen arts and culture erased from their communities and it’s costing this country dear.

That’s why this government is taking a very different approach from the last, and we don’t accept that keeping our country safe, and enabling our country to thrive and grow our economy is a zero sum game.

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy was asked on the BBC Radio 4 Today if she was concerned by comments from the Russian ambassador to the UK that the US is “for the first time” listening to Moscow’s point of view over the invasion of Ukraine.

Nandy said she was not, saying “it doesn’t worry me”. She continued:

I think it’s important that we maintain a dialogue with Russia, and I think it’s important that Russia hears what the world believes, and certainly across Europe.

And with recent comments by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, it’s very clear that we believe that Russia has to end this invasion in Ukraine. It’s important that we stick together on this. And I think it would be tempting for me to come on your show and commentate on the latest interventions, but that is never the way that you achieve peace.

Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel told viewers of Sky News this morning that she could not comment on the “motivation” of Donald Trump in criticising Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but said that Trump was “wrong”.

Ask what she made of the comments, Patel said:

First of all, that’s wrong. President Zelenskyy is not a dictator. Let’s just put some context of this. For three years – the third anniversary of the conflict is on Monday – for three years he has led his nation in terms of this conflict, standing up to Putin, Putin’s aggression, and the appalling conduct that we’ve seen.

[Zelenskyy] is fighting for sovereignty and the freedom of his country. And this is a significant conflict in our neighbourhood, effectively on European soil, and this is the most brutal conflict that we’ve seen in Europe since, clearly, the second world war. So here’s a man that’s fighting for sovereignty, freedom, and actually standing up for the rule of law, and many of the values that we all hold very dearly.

Asked “Why is president Trump saying that, do you think?” Patel replied “We don’t know. And you know, I don’t think I could comment on his motivation.”

Patel said Trump had been making some consistent points about European defence spending, and she anticipated that the presence of the US envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg in Kyiv would “actually help inform the White House going forward, [and] potentially try and inform some of the debates and discussions.”

She continued:

I think I said at the weekend too that there is a lot of chatter, there’s a lot of noise. There are no clear solutions right now.

And I think, you know, I say this not just as a member of the Conservative frontbench, but actually as a British politician, having led the support for Ukraine, this is why we must really be quite strong all over again in our support for greater defence and military spending and capability.

In terms of working with the government, my party had a plan to increase defence spending. We will be very keen to work with the government on that. But the macro point here is to show some firm and strong leadership with our European allies and within Nato to say that, look, war in Europe is not acceptable.

Lisa Nandy has urged for the “heat” to be taken out of public conversations about peace proposals to end the war caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after a day of heated exchanges between US president Donald Trump and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, the culture secretary said:

I think we need to take the heat down from what has become a very heated conversation in public over recent days. That’s what the prime minister has been doing, meeting with European leaders, speaking to President Zelenskyy. Next week, he’ll travel to the US to meet with President Trump.

Downing Street said that Keir Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy last night to reassure him that the UK saw him as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader, and not a “dictator”, as Trump had claimed.

Nandy continued, in an apparent reference to the negotiations that led to the Good Friday agreement, by saying:

The truth is that if we want a solution to what is happening in Ukraine –and we absolutely do, because it’s in British interests to do so, and it’s the right thing to do – then we know in our country from the experience of dealing with very difficult matters on our own shores, that the only way that you reach a solution is to bring all parties around the table, to take the heat down, to have cool heads, and to bring people together for a negotiated solution.

Justin Webb repeatedly questioned Nandy on whether the UK government agreed with Trump’s wording or not, but she diplomatically refused to be drawn in to an outright direct criticism while saying she was clear that the UK has a different view to the US president. She said:

We’ve got our own view as the UK. And our view is that the US matters, Ukraine must be involved in negotiations about Ukraine’s own future, and that Europe matters as well.

And we need to make sure with all parties around the table that our alliance doesn’t fracture. We’re absolutely committed to Nato. We have to hold that coalition together. We have got a real threat here in Vladimir Putin. We have got to work together with our allies in order to make sure that we don’t just win the war and win the peace in Ukraine, but we also make sure that we don’t see the like of this happening again.

Webb put it to Nandy that “would it not be reasonable for the prime minister to publicly contradict” Trump on claims Zelenskyy was a “dictator” who had done “a bad job”, and she replied:

The prime minister has made his own view clear. He spoke to president Zelenskyy in the last few days and made clear that he understands, first of all, that he is an elected leader, and we consider him in the United Kingdom to be a legitimate leader.

We do not consider president Zelenskyy to be a dictator. He was elected by the people of Ukraine. And the reason that there haven’t been elections is because of Russian aggression, and that is something that is out with Ukrainian control. We stand with Ukraine, and our belief in that, our support for Ukraine is unshakable.

Keir Starmer has spoken to Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express support for him “as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader” after Donald Trump claimed Ukraine’s president was a “dictator”

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

The prime minister spoke to President Zelenskyy this evening and stressed the need for everyone to work together. The prime minister expressed his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during the second world war.

Ukraine had been scheduled to hold elections in 2024, but they were cancelled due to the full-scale Russian invasion of the country launched by Vladimir Putin nearly three years ago in late February 2022.

Other senior political figures have also reacted to the US president’s comments. Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch said Zelenskyy was “the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion”. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Trump’s comments “must be where the line is drawn”

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of UK politics for Thursday. Here are the headlines …

• Keir Starmer has spoken to Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express support for him “as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader” after US president Donald Trump claimed Ukraine’s president was a “dictator”

• On Thursday morning minister Lisa Nandy said that the heat needed to be taken out public discussions about any peace deal in Ukraine

• Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said on Thursday that she could not comment on the motivation behind Trump’s attack on Zelenskyy and that “there are no clear solutions right now”, offering tentative Conservative support to any plans to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine

• The Labour government has announced a £270m Arts Everywhere fund for arts venues, museums, libraries and the heritage sector. Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Nandy are expected to make appearances today to promote the programme

• Plans by the Labour government to prevent refugees who arrive in the UK on a small boat, lorry or via other so-called “irregular” means from becoming a British citizen are facing their first legal challenge

• Defence secretary John Healey is in Norway, and foreign secretary David Lammy is at a G20 ministerial meeting in South Africa

It is Martin Belam with you again today. You can reach me at [email protected]. I do find it useful if you let me know if you spot my inevitable typos, errors or omissions.