Scottish Labour pledges £30m to top up artists’ income to a living wage

Labour has pledged to spend £30m on giving Scottish artists and musicians a living wage, mirroring a similar scheme in Ireland guaranteeing artists a basic income.Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the scheme would be part of a deeper shake-up of cultural funding in Scotland by integrating arts and culture into the Scottish government’s economic strategies if his party won power in next month’s Holyrood election.The scheme would start with a pilot project to top up the incomes of up to 1,000 artists, musicians and designers to make sure they made a living wage, provided they had proof of other earnings or income.Costing £30m over two years, Sarwar said it was similar to Ireland’s basic income for 2,000 artists, who were given €325 (£283) a week in three-year cycles. The pilot scheme, which recouped more than its net cost of €72m through increases in arts-related expenditure, productivity gains and reduced reliance on other welfare payments, was made permanent in February

Keir Starmer arrives in Gulf after US and Iran agree two-week ceasefire

Keir Starmer has arrived in Saudi Arabia to meet leaders in the Gulf region to discuss diplomatic efforts to support the ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran.The UK prime minister’s visit on Wednesday comes hours after a two-week ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday evening, cancelling a self-imposed deadline by the US president, Donald Trump, for Iran to surrender or face widespread destruction.Starmer said on Wednesday: “I welcome the ceasefire agreement reached overnight, which will bring a moment of relief to the region and the world.“Together with our partners we must do all we can to support and sustain this ceasefire, turn it into a lasting agreement and reopen the strait of Hormuz.”Downing Street said the prime minister would discuss diplomatic efforts to support and uphold the ceasefire to bring a “lasting resolution” to the conflict, and protect the UK and global economy

Londoners may regret protest votes for Reform or Greens in local elections, says Sadiq Khan

Sadiq Khan has said he can understand why some former Labour voters are “flirting” with other parties in the run-up to May’s elections, but said that they may regret seeing a Green or Reform-led council in their areas.Speaking to the Guardian at a youth centre, where he was announcing new funding for facilities for young people, the London mayor also cautioned Labour MPs against considering a challenge to Keir Starmer, saying such “navel gazing” would be punished by the electorate.Members of all 32 London boroughs are being elected on 7 May, along with elections at other councils and mayoralties across England, and members of the Scottish and Welsh parliament, with Labour expected to perform very poorly.Across London, a number of Labour councillors in inner boroughs are forecast to lose to the Greens or independents, with Reform hoping to make gains on the edges of the city.Asked if he could understand why Labour might fare worse than usual in the capital, Khan said his call was for people “to vote on the track record of their local councils, rather than using it as a referendum on the imperfections of a Labour government”, saying he accepted that Starmer and his team had not delivered “the progress Londoners would have liked to have seen”, despite progress on areas like child poverty and renters’ rights

What has conflict in Iran revealed about UK’s geopolitical standing and military readiness?

The world breathed a sigh of relief as the US and Iran agreed at the 11th hour to a two-week ceasefire after a diplomatic intervention from Iran. Hours after Donald Trump had threatened widespread bombing of Iran’s power plants and bridges, warning that “a whole civilisation will die tonight”, both countries agreed to a temporary ceasefire and Iran agreed to a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz.For the British government, whatever happens next, the conflict has revealed some important – and sometimes painful – lessons about the UK’s geopolitical standing and military readiness.In his first year as UK prime minister, Keir Starmer worked hard to cultivate a positive relationship with the US president, gaining a reputation as a supposed Trump whisperer. Just over a year ago, Starmer sat side by side with Trump in the Oval Office, gushingly handing over an “unprecedented” second state visit invitation from the king

Starmer urged to limit US access to UK bases after ‘dangerous’ Trump threats

Keir Starmer is facing increasing pressure to limit US access to British airbases after Donald Trump threatened “a whole civilisation” would die if Iran ignored his demands, comments that Downing Street has not directly criticised.No 10 has allowed US forces to use UK bases only for defensive missions against Iran, such as targeting missile sites, ruling out involvement in attacks on civilian infrastructure such as power stations, which the US president has threatened.The Liberal Democrats and Greens, as well as some Labour MPs, responded to Trump’s demands that Iran accept his conditions by a Tuesday night deadline by calling for the UK government to take further action.Even Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and Trump’s closest supporter among the main UK parties, condemned the president’s comments as going “way too far”.Downing Street declined to comment

UK politics: Farage says Trump’s Iranian ‘civilisation will die’ threats went ‘way too far’– as it happened

Even Nigel Farage now believes that Donald Trump has gone too far. In the past the Reform UK leader has been one of the president’s biggest supporters in the UK. More recently he has started to stress that he does not agree with the president on everything. But at his press conference this morning he was still broadly supportive, arguing that the UK could not defend itself militarily without the US and saying that, if he were PM, he would allow Trump to use British bases to attack Iranian infrastructure – provided Trump could assure him he had a plan for the end game. (See 2