"In his first major interview since standing down, former PM also says UK can ill afford net zero targets"
Telegraph: 5th March 2025: Telegraph reports on strange u-turn by Rishi Sunak as he tilts towards PopCon views on ECHR and Net Zero
"...Addressing the migrant crisis in the first major interview since his election defeat last year, the former prime minister said the European court “does need to reform or we should leave”.
In his interview with the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast... Mr Sunak said he would back Kemi Badenoch, his successor as Conservative leader, if she decided she wanted to take Britain out of the ECHR, the treaty that created the European court....Mr Sunak said: “If I was forced to choose between staying in the ECHR or being able to properly secure our borders, our security and tackle illegal migration, then I would choose the latter. The right thing is for them to reform. And if they don’t, we should leave.”
Mr Sunak also suggested the UK could not afford legally binding net zero targets...he said net zero “should be a noble ambition that we strive towards” but should be balanced with other issues. He said: “We don’t have a legal binding target on the Government [to reduce] the cost of living or cutting taxes or growing the economy. And net zero should just be part of the conversation like all those other things...”
Asked whether the legally-binding target of achieving net zero by 2050 should be scrapped, he replied: “It’s not so much the target itself as the legal framework around it, that somehow in our country forces the Government to make some quite damaging decisions at the expense of other things we all care about.”