Sunak criticised for saying border security more important than staying in European court of human rights – UK politics live | Politics

Trade groups have warned that consumers could see a rise in food prices after the UK government announced the introduction of post-Brexit charges on imports of EU food and plant products later this month, Jane Croft reports.

As the Guardian reported last night, Rishi Sunak is not just under pressure from lawyers, opposition parties and campaigners to halt arms sales to Israel. There are Tory MPs who want arms sales to be suspended too, and some of them are more critical of Israel than anyone from Labour’s shadow cabinet has been.

But there are also figures in the Conservative party urging Sunak to be, if anything, more supportive of Israel. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, has recently visited the country and, in an interview with the BBC broadcast on the Today programme this morning, she rejected suggestions with Israel was withholding food from the people of Gaza.

Asked if Israel could be in breach of international humanitarian law, she replied:

Absolutely not. The suggestion itself is absurd and, frankly, an insult to Israel who have been going above and beyond the necessary requirements to ensure that civilian casualties are limited, to ensure that aid is received onto the Gaza Strip and distributed.

I have seen evidence myself, in terms of very up-to-date photographic evidence, of plentiful food packages and trucks of food, water and medicines getting to the people of Gaza.

As well as being a former home secretary, Braverman is one of several figures in the party seen as eager to replace Sunak as party leader.

And in a column for the Telegraph, Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister, has proposed a more pro-Israel policy. Criticising calls for a ceasefire, he says:

We can’t allow this to happen. It’s a difficult case to make just at the moment, especially after the sad and distressing airstrike on World Central Kitchen aid workers, but Israel must not just be allowed, but enabled, to win this war. That’s because it’s in our own national interest that it does so. Our rivals around the world see international relations not in terms of law but of power. If Western countries don’t have the stomach to face down our enemies – and Islamist extremism, in the form of Hamas or anything else, is definitely our enemy – others will calibrate their actions accordingly.

David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is giving interviews today, and he has spoken to the BBC’s Ukrainecast podcast. Explaining Nato support for Ukraine, he said:

What Nato is looking at is a Nato mission for Ukraine, not a Nato mission in Ukraine. It’s making sure that we use Nato’s architecture to help deliver some of the support that Ukraine needs. But, fundamentally, I think that we should do everything we can to help Ukraine – that’s been Britain’s position.

And I think it’s not escalatory to say we are going to help this independent sovereign country to fight off an aggressor, and we’re going to give it all the help we can in order to do that.

Asked if he could imagine Nato boots on the ground in Ukraine, Cameron replied: “No.” He went on:

I think that we don’t want to give (Russian President Vladimir) Putin a target like that, and Nato can do lots of things to better co-ordinate the help we give to Ukraine.

But, fundamentally, for countries like Britain and all those supportive of Ukraine, this is a question of political will. Do we have the patience? Do we have the will? Are we prepared to give the resources? Now, in Britain’s case, definitely the answer is yes.

Farmers are calling for the government to grant them a universal basic income, saying the post-Brexit agriculture subsidy scheme has left many poorer, Helena Horton reports.

Good morning. There has been intense interest in when Rishi Sunak will call the general election, but much less on what he will decide to put in the Conservative party’s manifesto. That’s understandable; no one expects the Tory manifesto pledges to be implemented. But it will still have some impact on policy debate in the UK and a big, unresolved question is what it says about leaving the European convention on human rights (ECHR).

Some Tories want Sunak to commit to withdrawal. Another possibility would be to propose a referendum on leaving the ECHR. The mildest option would be to retain withdrawal as an option, depending on whether or not the European court of human rights (ECtHR), which enforces the ECHR, blocks deportation to Rwanda.

Sunak’s decision will not affect what the next government does, because there’s only a 1% chance he will be running it. But it will have some influence on whether or not one nation Tories still feel comfortable in their party, and whether or not the Conservative party aligns more closely with Reform UK.

As PM Sunak has normally not ruled out leaving the ECHR in interviews, while insisting that he can implement his Rwanda policy without needing to withdraw. After the supreme court blocked the Rwanda plan last year, he started saying he would “not allow a foreign court to block these flights”. But that seemed to be a reference to being willing to ignore ECtHR injunctions, and not a reference to full withdrawal from the convention.

Last night Sunak went further. In an interview with the Sun’s new online politics show, Never Mind the Ballots, he said border security was “more important” than remaining a member of the ECtHR.

Asked if the Conservative manifesto could include a pledge to leave the convention, he replied:

I believe that all plans are compliant with all of our international obligations, including the ECHR, but I do believe that border security, and making sure that we can control illegal migration, is more important than membership of a foreign court because it’s fundamental to our sovereignty as a country.

Sunak tends to be quite deliberate with his choice of words in interviews, and he used the exact phrase about border security being “more important than membership of a foreign court” twice in the interview. It does not answer the question about what will be in the manifesto, but it goes beyond what he has said before.

Labour politicians have criticised Sunak for his comments. This is from the Labour MP Stella Creasy.

Britain helped set up the ECHR. At the end of this week Conservative MPs will help elect judges to it on our behalf as representatives to it.

Yet rather than uphold the rule of law, this prime minister now says he’s happy to dispense with it all together.

And this is from Lord Falconer, a former Labour lord chancellor.

PM threatens to leave ECHR over Rwanda Plan. His threat undermines UK – human rights only if not too difficult politically. Time not on his side to exit ECHR. But he’s PM and puts UK’s commitment to human rights in doubt. Shame on him.

But Tory MPs have welcomed what Sunak said. This is from Bob Seely, approving a tweet from Jonathan Gullis, the new deputy chair of the Conservative party.

And this is from Neil O’Brien.

I will post more on this debate as the day goes on. A more pressing human rights issue for the government at the moment is whether to stop arms sales to Israel, as more than 600 lawyers, including three former supreme court judges, are demanding in a letter to Sunak. Most of the coverage of that will be on our Israel-Gaza war live blog, but I will be reporting the main political developments here too.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, is on a visit in the east Midlands with Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary.

11am: The Green party launches its local elections campaign in Bristol.

Lunchtime: Humza Yousaf, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, is on a visit on the Highlands.

Also, the National Education Union conference continues in Bournemouth, where the speakers include Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, and Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK.

If you want to contact me, do use the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.