00:00Now to the UK, where Keir Starmer's hold on power appears to be slipping away.
00:05Cabinet Ministers have asked him to set out a timetable for his departure.
00:09Despite this, the UK is still trying to reset relations with Brussels and set the agenda abroad.
00:14Our EU correspondent, Angela Scudens, spoke to the UK Europe Minister
00:18and started by asking him about Downing Street's role in supporting abducted Ukrainian children.
00:23Russia, as I said, has taken tens of thousands of these children,
00:27identifying where they are, making sure that we understand where they've gone.
00:33They've gone all over Russia, in many cases forcibly adopted,
00:37and in some cases taken to camps, indoctrinated, in some cases taught to try and hate where they came from.
00:45It's one of the most shocking things I think that I've ever heard of.
00:49And that's why today also we are announcing new sanctions on individuals and organisations
00:56who are behind this practice, building on the sanctions that we've already introduced.
00:59Tell me a little bit more about the sanctions, as well as that 1.3 million euro equivalent injection
01:06that has been pumped into this fight.
01:08Well, that money comes on top of money that we've already put into some of the pilot tracing programmes
01:13and initiatives which are doing this crucially important work on identifying these children
01:18and where they've gone.
01:20But on top of that, it is about exposing and holding to account those who are responsible.
01:26And as I said, that's not just individuals, that's also organisations and locations
01:30which have been used for these indoctrination camps
01:33and attempts to turn Ukrainian children against their culture and their heritage and their history.
01:39And that's what's the most heinous part of this really,
01:42is this not only what's being done to these children directly,
01:44but it's that attempt to destroy Ukrainian culture, history, language.
01:49And that very much sits at the horrific way in which Putin has prosecuted this war.
01:55Absolutely.
01:56Let's look at the recent election over the weekend in Britain.
02:00How is the government of Keir Starmer digesting this news,
02:04which saw Labour lose quite disastrously in the local election,
02:08the council elections pardon, and saw the Reform UK doing quite well?
02:13Well, the Prime Minister set out his response very clearly in a speech this morning.
02:18He has accepted responsibility for where there have been significant challenges,
02:23particularly in the way that we're communicating with the country
02:26and that people are anxious for change and change to happen faster.
02:30But I'm very proud of our record as a government
02:32and what we're doing on health, on education, on transport,
02:36on bringing children out of poverty, on increasing the minimum wage,
02:40on the greatest transformation of workers' rights in a generation,
02:43our investments in renewable energy, our new police on the streets.
02:47And we all have a job to do to communicate that more clearly
02:51and to provide hope and optimism about the future
02:53in what is a very, very difficult time.
02:55And what he was acknowledging absolutely this morning
02:58is that people are still feeling the pinch in their pocket.
03:00They're seeing conflict around the world.
03:02They're seeing pressure on energy prices.
03:03And we as a government have to be seen to be responding to that.
03:07And we are.
03:08And we will continue to do so.
03:09But he's also made it quite a big, strong point of his policy platform
03:14to reset relations between the UK and the EU.
03:17Does this, the results at the ballot box,
03:19suggest that perhaps Britons don't actually want this?
03:23Well, he set out very clearly this morning
03:25that a lot of the things that were told us about Brexit
03:27by Nigel Farage and reform were simply not true.
03:30He said it would make us richer.
03:32It hasn't.
03:33He said it would bring down migration.
03:35In fact, migration had gone up,
03:37although we're taking significant steps to reduce irregular migration.
03:41And, of course, he made a load of other false promises
03:44about the so-called sunny uplands that would come.
03:48And that hasn't been the case.
03:49So the Prime Minister has set out very clearly
03:51we need to be working closely with our European partners
03:53on the economy, on security, on defence,
03:56and internationally in what is a very turbulent world.
03:59And that's exactly what we will be doing
04:00in the run-up to the next UK-EU summit
04:02and what we're trying to achieve through our agreements
04:05on agriculture and food, on energy,
04:08on a youth experience scheme.
04:10That's what he set out this morning.
04:11It's what we're all working towards.
04:13Do you have a date for that summit?
04:14We don't have a fixed date yet,
04:16but it will be this summer.
04:18And we're working on an ambitious agenda.
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