UK politics: Starmer warns ‘lot of work to do’ to make ceasefire permanent at start of talks in Gulf - as it happened

Keir Starmer meets aircrew members at Taif airbase, Saudi Arabia Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

6.00pm BST

Early evening summary

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• The government has named the City veteran Ian Cheshire as its preferred choice to chair the media regulator Ofcom.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

5.57pm BST

Gina Davidson, the Scottish political editor of LBC, points out that there was a divide between Richard Tice and Malcolm Offord on shale gas at the Reform UK press conference earlier.

Richard Tice in Aberdeen today suggested fracking for shale gas in his Lincolnshire constituency to bring bills down - bit of a divide with Reform Scotland leader Malcolm Offord who emphatically told business leaders at a hustings last week he was not in favour of shale.