Keir Starmer averts row with union leaders as Labour reiterates ‘full commitment’ to new deal for working people – as it happened

Keir Starmer has averted a row with union leaders Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

6.15pm BST

Early evening summary

• Keir Starmer has averted a row with union leaders about Labour’s plans to strengthen employment rights after they were satisfied by assurances they were given at a meeting that the party is not going back on pledges set out in its new deal for working people policy document last summer.

• There is no evidence of widespread abuse of the UK’s graduate visa route, the government’s immigration advisers have concluded, despite repeated claims from senior Conservatives that it is being exploited to enter the jobs market.

• Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, has said the Belfast high court ruling yesterday saying the Rwanda deportation policy cannot apply in Northern Ireland because of the Good Friday agreement shows that Rishi Sunak’s Windsor framework deal has “failed upon its first contact with reality”. (See 1.08pm.) During a Commons urgent question, Tom Pursglove, the minister for legal migration, claimed the court ruling would not stop the government deporting people to Rwanda and he claimed asylum seekers could not avoid removal by going to Northern Ireland. But many MPs did not accept this, and some said that, rather than just appeal against the judgment, the government should instead legislate to exempt Northern Ireland from EU law. (See 1.34pm.)

• Andrew Stephenson, a health minister, has urged MPs to dismiss “myths” being spread about a World Health Organisation pandemic preparedness treaty that the UK is considering supporting. (See 2pm.)

• Rishi Sunak launched his food security index to farmers, as experts predict extreme weather this year could cut UK self-sufficiency by 8%.

• The Kremlin critic and anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder has urged MPs to introduce a US-style law that would allow the government to confiscate frozen Russian assets to support military efforts in Ukraine.

Updated at 6.17pm BST

5.53pm BST

Updated at 6.04pm BST