Rishi Sunak warned that taking UK out of European convention on human rights would cross ‘red line’ for many Tory MPs – live | Politics

On Friday the Royal College of Nursing and several other health unions called for strikes planned for Wales this week after the Welsh government made fresh proposals on pay. But Unite, which represents some ambulance staff, said it was not calling off its strike because it was still negotiating.

Today Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said her union was “tantalisingly close” to a deal with the Welsh government. She said:

The reason that we’re still out in Wales is that it would be disingenuous for us to put an offer to pause the strike in the full knowledge the offer was going to get rejected.

What we want is not a sticking plaster – we want to have a deal on the table that will be accepted.

I spoke to the health minister in Wales on a number of occasions yesterday; we’re tantalisingly close.

The sticking point really is [of the] the extra 3% – half of it is on non-consolidated, so therefore it’s a one-off payment.

And what we’re simply asking is to put more of that on the wages, so that people have that forever, it’s in their pay packet, because that will address some of the concerns.

Keir Starmer has condemned the UK government for refusing to reopen talks with the unions on pay for health staff in England. He said people would be “absolutely flabbergasted” that ministers were refusing to negotiate.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Airbus in Filton, near Bristol, Starmer said today’s NHS strikes were “a badge of shame for the government”. He went on:

Nobody wants to see these strikes, nobody wants to be on strike – the last thing nurses want to do is to be on strike.

What they do want is a government that can show leadership, get around the negotiating table and settle this dispute.

Before Christmas, the nurses made clear that if the government was to get in the room and talk to them about pay, they wouldn’t be on strike.

I think many people listening to this will be absolutely flabbergasted that the government is still sitting this one out, not showing any leadership in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, making the situation much worse than it otherwise would be.

Ministers say there have been talks, but the government says it will not reopen the pay offer for the current financial year and the unions say there are no talks taking place on the current pay offer.

Senior Tories have expressed concern about reports that Rishi Sunak may be willing to take the UK out of the European convention on human rights if that turns out to be the only way to stop the courts blocking his plan to ban all people arriving in small boats across the Channel from claiming asylum in the UK.

Sunak has promised to publish legislation to implement this promise shortly and, according to a report by Tim Shipman in the Sunday Times, this could put the government on course to make withdrawal from the EHCR a manifesto commitment at the next election.

In his story Shipman said:

Sunak and Suella Braverman, the home secretary, are finalising plans for the most draconian immigration legislation seen in this country. Officials say the plans, to be unveiled within weeks, will take Britain to the “boundaries” of international law.

But senior figures say if judges at the European court of human rights in Strasbourg rule that the new plans are unlawful, the prime minister is open to withdrawing from the convention.

“The PM has been clear he wants to introduce legislation that meets our international obligations,” a source familiar with Sunak’s thinking said. “This bill will go as far as possible within international law. We are pushing the boundaries of what is legally possible, while staying within the ECHR. And we are confident that when it is tested in the courts, we will win.

Sir Robert Buckland, a Tory former justice secretary, told the Financial Times that leaving the convention, which is overseen by the Council of Europe, would be a mistake. He said:

It would be an undesirable state of affairs if the UK was to follow Russia out of the Council of Europe … I don’t think there would be a majority for it.

Sir Bob Neill, the Conservative chair of the Commons justice committee, told the same paper that this would be a “red line” for many people in the party. He said:

If Conservatives don’t believe in the rule of law, what do we believe in? Are we going to put ourselves in the same company as Russia and Belarus?

It’s not a virtue to push the law to the limits. Adherence to and membership of the ECHR is a red line for many Conservatives. It would be unbelievable for a Conservative government to leave it.

According to Eleni Courea, in today’s London Playbook briefing from Politico, the Tory backbencher Jackie Doyle-Price also dismissed that idea in a message on a WhatsApp group for Conservative MPs. In a message seen by Courea, Doyle-Price said that “willy waving about leaving the ECHR will do zilch”. Doyle-Price went on:

I have been a member of the Conservative party for 36 years. This group leaves me cold. Upholding the law should never be a matter for debate for a Conservative. Our Home Office is crap. If the government wants to have a phone[y] war over the ECHR instead of sorting itself out it can do it without me.

Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has accused ministers in England of refusing to discuss pay with health unions. Despite Maria Caulfield, the health minister, saying this morning that talks did take place last month (see 9.14am), Cullen said that in her three meetings with Steve Barclay, the health secretary, he was willing to discuss “anything but pay”.

She told Times Radio:

We can’t get to a table in England. The nurses in England have found that this government time and time again, has just turned their back on them, and I’ve said loud and clear, punishing them.

I wrote to the prime minister on Saturday, and I’ve yet to get a response, knowing that there’s two days of industrial action today and tomorrow, that is no way to treat the nurses of England.

And here are some more lines from Maria Caulfield, the health minister, speaking for the government on the morning interview round.

For the vast majority of patients, they won’t be affected in terms of going to procedures and appointments and operations.

If their trust is affected, they would have been in touch with them to let them know what’s happening.

• She expressed doubt that the increased pay offer to health workers in Wales would resolve the strikes. Most health unions in Wales called off this weeks after the Welsh government tabled a revised offer so that their members can consider it. But, when asked why the UK government was not doing the same for health workers in England, Caulfield told the Today programme:

The offer in Wales, 3%, is only actually a 1.5% pay increase, and then another 1.5% lump sum payment. And that is being put to members in Wales. A much higher offer was put to members in Scotland before Christmas and was rejected. So we are in no means in Wales out of the woods in terms of a deal being done.

• She insisted that offering an above-inflation pay high rise to nurses would fuel inflation. But when the Today presenter Justin Webb put it to her paying staff more in the NHS would not lead to prices going up (as paying staff more does in firms that fund pay rises by charging customers more), and asked Caulfield to explain what the “mechanism” was by which a pay rise would fuel inflation, Caulfield dodged the question. She replied:

It’s not just about fuelling inflation. It’s paying for it.

When Webb put it to her that the government’s case wasn’t, then, about the inflation risk after all, Caulfield replied:

It’s a combination of both. If you give above-inflation pay rises, that would in fuel inflation. But we’re talking about – in Wales they’ve got 3% on the table. But we have to pay for it.

And at the moment we are borrowing record amounts of money. We’re seeing interest rates that have gone up because we’ve got record levels of borrowing. So it is the whole financial picture that has to be taken into consideration.

There is a risk to patients the longer that strikes go on.

So if your operation is cancelled the first time, there is probably a minimum risk. If that’s cancelled time and time again because of ongoing strikes, then patients become more poorly and there is always a risk.

And with ambulance strikes, if someone’s having a heart attack or a stroke, that does increase someone’s risk the longer that response time is.

Robert Buckland has confirmed that he and Dominic Raab had “a disagreement” when they were both in cabinet, after it was reported Raab tried to get Buckland sacked as Welsh secretary last year amid a fallout over policy, my colleague Peter Walker reports.

Good morning. Scotland and Wales have had devolved governments for more than 20 years, but it probably was not until Covid that people realised the extent to which, when it comes to health policy, the UK government is just an England government. Today England is seeing what is being described as the worst day of disruption in health this winter, with nurses and ambulance staff both on strike. But health workers are not on strike in Scotland, and there is only a limited ambulance strike in Wales by members of the Unite union. England is different because the Scottish and Welsh governments have made improved pay offers, but the UK England government is not doing the same.

Yesterday Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said UK government ministers were lying when they said pay talks with unions were still taking place.

This morning Maria Caulfield, a health minister, was the government’s designated voice on the morning interview programmes. She did not have anything new to announce, but she hit back at claims that ministers were unwilling to talk to the unions. She told the Today programme:

What I would say … to the RCN, as [is] happening in Scotland, they’ve called off the strikes to discuss the forthcoming year’s pay settlement from April, which is just a few weeks away – do the same in England.

The secretary of state’s been meeting in January, almost on a weekly basis, with a range of health care unions. So the door is firmly open. And I would ask the RCN and the ambulance unions to get back round the table.

I will post more from Caulfield’s interview round shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Morning: Keir Starmer and Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, are on a visit in Bristol. Starmer is expected to record a TV interview.

2.30pm: Suella Braverman, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Afternoon: Peers debate the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill.

5pm: Spectator TV broadcasts its interview with Liz Truss – her first since she left No 10.

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