EU-UK Cultural Exchange Arrangements

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a valid and topical point, because in the past week there has been some publicity around some of the destruction wrought on Ukraine’s cultural landmarks. Recently, the UK and the European Commission each committed £250,000 to support cultural heritage protection in Ukraine, aimed at protecting and restoring Ukraine’s cultural landmarks. We have also discussed collaborating on the impact of artificial intelligence in the creative industries with Ukraine, facilitating international cultural collaboration and improving working conditions for creative and cultural professionals. I met the Ukrainian Culture Minister recently and discussed with her how we could work more closely to support them in their cultural recovery.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

Why are the Government opposed to a full creative industries mobility scheme with the EU?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

We are working through negotiations. I am not going to give a running commentary on negotiations from the Dispatch Box, not least as they are not ones that I am leading myself. We are continuing to engage constructively with EU member states. We are not looking, as I think we made clear in our manifesto, to re-enter a situation where we would have free movement. We committed to that in the manifesto. I am quite clear that in our manifesto we stood on clear red lines in relation to Europe, and those are ones that remain this Government’s policy.