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The "critical" funding includes £15m for the National Railway Museum in York, £10m for the British Library North in Leeds and £5m for the National Poetry Centre, also in Leeds.

The £10m for the British Library North will be spent revamping a new site called Temple Works, a derelict Grade I building and the £5m for the National Poetry Centre will renovate a redundant Grade II listed building to create a national headquarters for poetry.

More than 135 libraries lit up in support, including the British Library in London, 10 libraries in Lancashire, others in Wirral, Cheshire, Knowsley, Manchester and Oldham.

McQueen enlisted author Joshua Levine as a historical advisor and did extensive research with the help of the Imperial War Museum and the British Library to produce an original screenplay.

Mr Lynch, a former UK government adviser who sat on the boards of the BBC and the British Library, had faced house arrest in the US, while preparing for the trial, which began in San Francisco in March.