Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, has signalled the government may be prepared to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR) if it will help the UK tackle the problem of people arriving on small boats crossing the Channel. Lee Anderson, the Conservative deputy chair, has admitted that the government has “failed” on immigration. (See 11.22am.) Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative peer and close ally of Boris Johnson, has hinted he could be “very tempted” to back Labour and questioned again Rishi Sunak’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis. The UK government has announced a deal with Turkey to focus on coordinated actions to “disrupt and dismantle” people-smuggling gangs. Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach (Irish PM), has said that if power sharing is not restored at Stormont in the autumn, the UK and Irish governments need to work on a “plan B”. Speaking after talks with all the main Northern Ireland party leaders in Belfast, he said he hoped the DUP would lift its boycott of the power-sharing executive so it can reconvene in the autumn. But he went on: I do think, though, that if that opportunity is missed, if it’s the case that the institutions can’t be re-established in the autumn, well, then I do think at that point we have to start having conversations about alternatives, about plan B. That’s very much a conversation that I’m keen to have with the UK government. I don’t want to speculate too much at the moment, because I still believe it is possible to get the institutions up and running in the autumn. I do think the suspension has gone on for a long time. There is drift. And that’s not good for Northern Ireland. Asked what the “plan B” might be, Varadkar said he did not want to say. He went on: That’s kind of a conversation that we’re having some of the party leaders today, a conversation that I think we need to have between the British and Irish governments, because we’re not the sovereign government in Northern Ireland – we accept that. But we are co-guarantors of the Good Friday agreement and if the Good Friday agreement isn’t working, if institutions aren’t functioning, well, then it makes sense that the British and Irish governments work together to talk about what arrangements could be put in place. Asked if this meant joint authority, he added: I don’t mean anything specifically. I understand again why you’re asking that question but, as you know, there’s no provision for joint authority in the Good Friday agreement, there’s also no provision for direct rule in the Good Friday agreement.