A senior Labour frontbencher confirmed the party has ditched its commitment on green spending

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, says reports that the government is giving up on plans for a returns agreement with Turkey are “very concerning”.

This decision by the Home Office is very concerning.

As Home Secretary I worked up proposals to list Turkey as a safe country : a member of the Council of Europe, a NATO ally and a Candidate country for EU accession.

The government should re-think this decision.

The Times said that ministers’ hopes for a returns deal, along the same lines as the current agreement with Albania, has collapsed after an internal review said Turkey was “a state that does not meet the criteria of being ‘generally safe’”.

Rishi Sunak and other leading Tories have hailed the Albania deal as a key success in the prime minister’s bid to stop small boats crossings in the Channel. But it now appears a similar agreement with Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is unlikely to happen.

Notably, the assessment also raises concerns over Turkey’s compliance with adverse rulings from the European court of human rights (ECHR), which the Home Office assessment said “raised questions about adherence to the rule of law”.

This is significant given Sunak’s plans not to comply with interim injunctions from the same court.