As 27 European countries urge changes to laws forged after second world war, human rights chief says politicians are playing into hands of populists

The battle had been brewing for months. But this week it came to a head in a flurry of meetings, calls and one heady statement. Twenty-seven European countries urged a rethink of the human rights laws forged after the second world war, describing them as an impediment when it came to addressing migration.

Amnesty International has called it “a moral retreat”. Europe’s most senior human rights official said the approach risked creating a “hierarchy of people” where some are seen as more deserving of protection than others.

Nick Moss, Dr Deborah Talbot, Dimitra Blana and Mary Pimm on the prime minister’s plan to ‘protect our borders’ and Donald Trump’s accusations that Europe is ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’

There is something particularly sickening about Keir Starmer’s call for European leaders to “urgently curb joint human rights laws” (Starmer urges Europe’s leaders to curb ECHR to halt rise of far right, 9 December).

It is not just that the human rights lawyer who wrote a key text on the Human Rights Act 1998 has become, as prime minister, an advocate of the act’s undoing, along with all the consequences for migrant families that will flow from that. It is that Starmer shows through this the complete dearth of ideas available to European social democracy.

Manchester Metropolitan University again wins top spot for climate and social justice in league table

More universities have severed ties with fossil fuel companies, banning them from recruitment fairs and refusing to advertise roles in the industry, according to the latest higher education league table.

The analysis found that eight more universities had signed up to end recruitment ties with the fossil fuel industry - an increase of 80% since last year. This means 18 higher education institutions, or 12% of the sector, now refuse to advertise roles with fossil fuel companies to their students.

Crowborough on edge as unconfirmed plan to house asylum seekers in training camp spurs street patrols and pre-emptive protests

Among the crowded shelves of Sacred Heart hardware store in Crowborough, there is a gap on the wall where the kitchen knives used to be displayed.

As the local rumour of recent days goes, that space is linked to the news story of the moment in the East Sussex town: the imminent arrival of hundreds of asylum seekers at a nearby military training camp.

Calls to modernise human rights law too often assume that hostile public opinion cannot be changed by argument from first principles

Arguments over the role of the European convention on human rights in asylum policy express a tension between the politics of an ever-changing world and the principle of immutable humanitarian values.

When Sir Keir Starmer observes that population flows in 2025 are different to conditions 75 years ago, when the ECHR was drafted, and that governments have a duty to adapt to the change, he is responding to political reality.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Keir Starmer has called on European leaders to urgently change human rights laws so that member states can take tougher action to protect their borders and see off the rise of the populist right across the continent. But Labour has been condemned by campaigners and MPs who argue the proposals could lead to countries abandoning the world’s most vulnerable people and will further demonise refugees.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s political editor and host of Politics Weekly UK, Pippa Crerar

We need people from Europe to move to the UK – but also a way to give Brits the opportunity to build the futures they crave

Announcing her new Youth Matters plan – £500m to “boost resilience and teach skills” – the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, spoke of a “violent indifference” from the political establishment towards young people that had been going on “for decades”. She’s not wrong. We can look at all of the ways in which young people have seen their economic prospects and work opportunities systematically destroyed – and see that they all date from 2010.

First, the tripling of the tuition fee cap saddled them with debts that have become astronomical, particularly for degrees that are socially beneficial, such as medicine and nursing; this, incidentally, from a coalition in which one party explicitly promised never to do that. Yet for all its boldness in setting fire to manifesto promises and playing fast and loose with a generation’s future, the tuition fees policy didn’t actually deliver a sustainable funding plan for tertiary education – instead leaving it to cross-subsidise with foreign students, whom the political establishment has spent the past five years trying to chase out of the country.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

The prime minister and his counterpart in Denmark want a concerted effort to weaken human rights across Europe. This isn’t pragmatism – it’s cruelty

• Steve Valdez-Symonds is refugee and migrant rights director at Amnesty UK

When Keir Starmer and Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, argue that asylum protections must be rewritten for a new “era”, they are not simply adjusting policy. They are reshaping the moral ground our societies stand on.

Their message is clear: hardening rules so that fewer people receive protection is the way to restore confidence in their leadership. They present this as measured and responsible, even progressive. But what they propose is not a new centre ground; it is a retreat into a politics that regards some lives as less worthy than others.

Steve Valdez-Symonds is refugee and migrant rights director with Amnesty International UK

Government plans for Crowborough training camp in east Sussex will be challenged in high court

A legal challenge against government plans to move hundreds of asylum seekers into a military camp in east Sussex has been launched in the high court.

This is thought to be the first challenge against a mass accommodation site for asylum seekers to reach the high court since Labour came to power.

Britain aligns with some of Europe’s hardline governments in calling for change to allow Rwanda-style migration deals

• UK politics live – latest updates

The UK has joined some of Europe’s hardline governments in calling for human rights laws to be “constrained” to allow Rwanda-style migration deals with third countries and more foreign criminals to be deported.

Twenty-seven of the 46 Council of Europe members including the UK, Hungary and Italy have signed an unofficial statement that also urges a new framework for the European convention of human rights, which will also narrow the definition of “inhuman and degrading treatment”.

This is our strong message to our friends in Europe. Unless responsible governments reflect their citizens’ concerns, populists will win

• Keir Starmer is the British prime minister. Mette Frederiksen is prime minister of Denmark

When trust in government to confront the challenges of today falters, our sense of shared belonging can begin to crack. As the prime ministers of two great European nations, we will not let this happen.

How we deal with irregular migration is at the heart of this, and we know that the response must match the scale of the challenge.

Exclusive: PM calls for members of European convention on human rights to allow tougher action to protect borders

• We must protect our borders to defend our democracies – here’s how

Keir Starmer has called on European leaders to urgently curb joint human rights laws so that member states can take tougher action to protect their borders and see off the rise of the populist right across the continent.

Before a crucial European summit on Wednesday, the prime minister urged fellow members to “go further” in modernising the interpretation of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) to prevent asylum seekers using it to avoid deportation.

Anne Johns, who volunteers with refugees, says she regularly witnesses highly skilled and qualified people failing the test on idiotic questions

Oh, how I agree with Emma Beddington (Forget Hadrian’s Wall. The UK citizenship test should ask about Corrie, bus queues and Greggs, 7 December). I volunteer with refugees and regularly witness the distress of highly skilled and qualified people failing the test on idiotic questions that most Britons couldn’t answer. When simple facts can be found by a quick internet search, what is the point of wasting brain space by trying to memorise them?

Much more salient to ask questions like: where can you legally ride an electric scooter? The maximum legal speed for an electric bicycle? The documents needed to drive a car legally in the UK? What is the living wage? How do you obtain a library card? How do you know when it’s safe to cross a road at lights? What is a food bank? Which political party is currently in power in England?

Public figures sign letter saying plan to reinterpret ECHR for asylum seekers is ‘affront to us all’ and a threat to security

The actors Michael Palin, Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley are among 21 well-known figures calling on Keir Starmer to drop plans to weaken human rights law and instead “take a principled stand” for torture victims, on the eve of a crucial European summit.

As David Lammy prepares to attend a Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg that will discuss legal changes to stop bogus asylum claims, the novelist Julian Barnes, the actor Adrian Lester and the comedian Aisling Bea have also signed a letter telling the prime minister: “Any attempt at undermining universal protections is an affront to us all and a threat to the security of each and every one of us.”