Starmer calls Tory claim UK would accept 100,000 EU migrants per year under Labour ‘embarrassing nonsense’– as it happened

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer leaving Europol in The Hague. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

5.40pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Clear pre-election divisions have opened up between Labour and the Conservatives on immigration as Downing Street ruled out ever accepting an asylum seeker quota-sharing deal with the EU, after Keir Starmer’s comments that he would.

• The NHS waiting list in England has hit a new record high, with nearly 7.7 million people – about one in seven – waiting for treatment.

• The HS2 high-speed rail line has been mired in fresh uncertainty as the prime minister’s spokesperson refused to guarantee it would run to Manchester, after a photographed document suggested the government was looking for further cuts amid increasing costs.

• The health secretary, Steve Barclay, has announced the government is committed to bringing in “Martha’s rule” in England, making it easier for patients and their families to get a second medical opinion if they believe their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff.

Rishi Sunak meeting staff at the North Devon district hospital. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Updated at 5.42pm BST

5.32pm BST

Gerald Knaus, the head of the European Stability Initiative thinktank, has welcomed Keir Starmer’s suggestion that he would negotiate a returns agreement with the EU. He points out that, in a report earlier this year, the ESI suggested that, in return for France and other countries agreeing to take back migrants crossing the Channel, the UK should agree to take in 40,000 asylum seekers per year. Here is an extract.

Currently the EU is responding to irregular migration to the UK the way Turkey responds to irregular migration from it to the EU: no legal returns of those who cross the water have been possible. For this to change, France, Germany, and others forming a coalition of the willing would need to offer to the UK that they – not Rwanda – will take everyone back who crosses the Channel, as soon as the UK has processed them in line with its laws.

The UK in turn should agree to resettle refugees or asylum seekers, who are now in the European partner countries, through legal ways. If the UK were to offer to take 40,000 people a year for three years, this would be real solidarity with France, Germany or the Netherlands.

Why 40,000? Last year, Germany granted protection to more than 128,000 people. Austria (population 9 million) to more than 17,000. In 2022, France had 150,000 asylum applications and granted 50,000 people international protection, including decisions on appeal and resettlement. The UK had 90,000 asylum applications and gave 25,000 people some form of protection, including decisions on appeal and resettlement (all excluding Ukrainian refugees).

For the UK, such cooperation would bring back control. And the commitment to resettle would ensure a continued interest on the other side of the channel in cooperation.

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Humane control. https://t.co/yJzh0xK7XT pic.twitter.com/PadghEDCBh

— Gerald Knaus (@rumeliobserver) September 14, 2023

Updated at 5.55pm BST