Government in afghanistan and gb news understands mr ellwood made the decision after an informal meeting where he was called in and asked to defend his comment as well. In a statement this evening. The bournemouth east mp says he got it wrong and that the video reflected poorly on the video reflected poorly on the committee. Gb news the committee. Gb news understands that the father stepmother and uncle of sara sharif will shortly be landing back in the uk to face questions over her death. Zaras father and his partner fled the uk for pakistan after the ten year old was found dead in the family home in woking in surrey on the 10th of august. We understand that flight should be landing at London Gatwick in the next 15 minutes or so. Surrey police saying they want to speak to sara family about the little girls death and a mans been arrested after an 11 Year Old Girl and two men were injured by an american xl bully crossbreed dog. And a warning if youre watching on television, it does contain graphic images. This next clip footage emerging on social media of the dog chasing and attacking people in birmingham at the weekend. West Midlands Police saying the 60 year old has been arrested on suspicion of possessing a dog dangerously out of control. All dangerously out of control. All. The former chief Financial Officer and three others from the collapsed bakery chain patisserie, valerie have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the Serious Fraud office says its charged christopher marsh and his wife alongside a Financial Controller and a Financial Controller and a Financial Consultant in relation with the offences. Theyre accused of conspiring to inflate the cash balance on the annual reports between 2015 and 2018, theyll appear at Westminster Magistrates Court next month. Magistrates court next month. Now the chancellor says the government is sticking to its plan to halve inflation as the economy shrunk by 0. 5 in july. But jeremy hunt, explaining he remains confident about the future of the uks economy, saying the country did recover quickly from covid. And he pointed out its also growing faster than countries like germany or italy. In the long germany or italy. In the long term. Labour says the economys contraction, though, is failing of the government. Those are of the government. Those are your latest news stories. This is gb news across the uk on tv, in your car, on Digital Radio and now on your Smart Speaker by saying play gb news. This is britains news. Saying play gb news. This is britains news. Channel saying play gb news. This is britains news. Channel good evening. Ben wallace was a highly regarded defence secretary. He really was. He commanded respect, i think, on both sides of the house of commons. He has gone from that post. Hes leaving westminster as a member of parliament and whether thats to do with the change to his constituency boundaries or he simply had enough, i dont know. But he now of course is to free speak out and to say what he really thinks. And i think what he said to the telegraph overnight is really interesting. He the European Convention he said the European Convention on has become a on human rights has become a serious risk to National Security , and its thwarting our security, and its thwarting our efforts to stop terrorists in fact, he said the whole thing was lunacy, that we cannot deal with suspects plotting against britain from abroad , that we can britain from abroad, that we can kill them with drones. Thats okay. Or we can continue to leave them plotting. But what we couldnt do is what the american did when they finally took out osama bin laden. So he says that echr is a threat to our National Security, that it leaves us more open to terrorism. And yet when hes asked the question , should hes asked the question, should we leave, he does the classic tory thing. Oh, no , its tory thing. Oh, no, its absolutely dreadful. But we should stay. It feels to me rather like a rerun of the old eurosceptics who said the eu is dreadful, but we must stay as members. I dreadful, but we must stay as members. I think the public are coming to a very different view on this, and im asking you, is it time to leave the echr farage at gbnews. Com for your answers and responses please. Im joined in the studio by mark francois, member of parliament for the conservatives for rayleigh and wickford European ResearchGroup Chairman and of course ex army, somebody very , very concerned somebody very, very concerned with defence british forces. With defence british forces. Tobias ellwood, the chair. Until a few hours ago of the Defence Committee , he made some pretty, committee, he made some pretty, pretty erratic statement. I thought, about the taliban in effectively stabilising afghan can and doing a good job and he stood down as chair of that committee today, i suspect before Committee Members forced him out and just get your reaction to that. Please it was a difficult meeting, nigel, i think, for everybody. Nigel, i think, for everybody. See, and it wouldnt be right for me to give you a sort of blow by blow account. I dont think that would be appropriate. I do think, though, tobias has taken the right decision to be fair under his chairmanship, the committee , you know, published committee, you know, published some really hard hitting reports about things like equipment in the army, you know, under his chairmanship. We really were having an impact. But because of this video, i think he felt in the end that he that he had to resign the only thing i would add, because hes issued a statement and its right that hes gone, i think it was the right decision. Hes issued a statement that stands on the record. Only record. And the only thing i would as a member of the would add as a member of the committee is that were all conscious. And i think tobias is, too, that video caused is, too, that that video caused a deal of angst, pain to a great deal of angst, pain to veterans who fought in afghan. It was a war and we lost a lot of people and we had many more who were very seriously wounded. And to them and to their families and their loved ones, were all very sorry for any pain that this may have caused. Pain that this may have caused. And hopefully now we can we can begin to begin to move forward. Begin to begin to move forward. But but were all conscious of that. And i think to be fair, so is tobias okay . He got it wrong. Hes gone. He got it wrong. Hes gone. And in many ways, i think thats the right thing to mark. I mentioned a moment ago ben wallace, our former defence secretary, who and i think i was right in what i said in the introduction, he did command respect, i think, from both sides of the house. Correct. You know, was somebody who cared know, he was somebody who cared about job, the job, about the job, loved the job, actually was in the job for rather a long time, the longest ever serving tory defence secretary, i think. Yeah. Yeah. And given last and you know, given that last year you had five education secretaries, its quite nice to see some that actually see some people that actually stay. Hes gone i stay. But hes gone and i suspect its the change of his constituency boundary thats forcing him out of parliament. Well at the end of the day you have to ask ben but i mean he let me put it like this. I mean, i think he said in one interview that because remember, hed been the security minister for was it two and a bit years before he was defence secretary think it secretary for. And i think it summed it up very well and he said, you know, you know, when he to bed at night, he had he went to bed at night, he had three by his one was three phones by his bed. One was his personal mobile, one was his departmental mobile. And the other top secret other one was the top secret phone. And he told me few days phone. And he told me a few days ago, now, when he out ago, even now, when he gets out of a car, he sort of pats himself down. If i got even though he knows he hasnt got all the same so so he all the same phones. So so he more than stood his watch. He was regarded. And it was very widely regarded. And it is to say if ben had not is true to say if ben had not been the defence secretary prior to the russian invasion, then because coming, call because he saw it coming, call it soldiers instinct, call it it a soldiers instinct, call it what will, he sensed what you will, he sensed what was come. He took on was going to come. He took on the he took the cabinet the job. He took on the Cabinet Office the Foreign Office to office and the Foreign Office to get those to the get those in laws to the ukrainians and to give them time to train on them. Remember weve been ukrainians in been training ukrainians in britain 2014. And i think britain since 2014. And i think what operational orbital , if what operational orbital, if they not had those in laws, they had not had those in laws, but given bearing in mind what we now know about the first four and these are the weapons that were taking out the tanks. Yeah, basically of modern bazooka. And in the defence of kyiv, they were enormously effective if not forced the issue if ben had not forced the issue and that the and made sure that the ukrainians had those weapons , ukrainians had those weapons, the russians would be having dinner, dinner in kyiv tonight. I believe that to be absolute. That well true , but that may well be true, but hes gone and yeah, in some ways, as you say, he more than did his bit enormously popular with the tory faithful. Hes gone. With the tory faithful. Hes gone. Hes retiring, but hes gone. Hes retiring, but hes now speaking out, frankly. And you this is quite strong you know, this is quite strong stuff. Mark francois , you know, stuff. Mark francois, you know, im going to repeat it. It bears repetition. The echr has become a serious risk to National Security and is thwarting our efforts to stop terrorists as and yet your party seems to be utterly committed to continued membership of an organisation thatis membership of an organisation that is threatening our National Security. Dont we need to do something about this . I think we do. We do, yes. I think we do. We do, yes. Nigel, im not going to insult your intelligence. You well know your intelligence. You well know there are some people in the tory cabinet who regard the echr as holy writ. Yeah, but i think events have evolved in such a way that we do need to revisit this. The boats issue. And way that we do need to revisit this. The boats issue. And ben this. The boats issue. And ben was making a separate point. But was making a separate point. But on the boats issue, what we should have done from the outset was what we did on prisoner voting and we should have just said, thank you very much. This is none of your business. Youre overreaching. Thats what we overreaching. Thats what we should have told the Strasbourg Court. We are not going to accept your authority in this cross channel scenario. We will do what we have to do to protect our mark francois. We didnt do it. We didnt do it. I know that, nigel, but thats what i think we should have done. No, no, listen, i wont disagree with that. And im sure most of our viewers wont disagree with that. We disagree with that. But we didnt im didnt do it. You see, im getting to this point, ben getting back to this point, ben wallace outlining the echr. Wallace is outlining the echr. He calls it lunacy. And yet , he calls it lunacy. And yet, should we leave . Oh, no, lets stay. Members of it. And it reminds me, as i say, of the old tory eurosceptics, everythings dreadful about the european union. But we should stay as members. Well, not not this tory eurosceptic, mate. No, no , eurosceptic, mate. No, no, no, no, no. But i mean time you were but i mean the time you were europe its long europe minister, its a long time back. The point im making is the party doesnt to is the party doesnt seem to have courage of the logical have the courage of the logical conclusion that had been reached by, as you say, the longest serving conservative defence minister whos been involved in the war on terror, on Counter Terrorism. Um, and its Counter Terrorism. Um, and its all well and good you sitting here and saying we should revisit it. What in gods name does that mean . All right, look, youve basically got three positions. One, we continue as we are the second position is that we say in certain areas we will no delineated areas. We will no delineated areas. We will no longer accept the authority of the Strasbourg Court. And theres a theres a precedent on prisoner voting. I remember it very well. Okay. And i think certainly in the boat scenario, we should do that. And i think in some of the scenarios that ben was outlining for reasons of National Security and as you say, hes a man whos got a right to have an opinion, we should do that, too. And then, if you like, the third option is that we leave the echr altogether. Tell me why we should stay in. Well hang on. You didnt i . I said there are three options. Youve just laid them out, right . So why should we stay in . What are the benefits to staying well im not saying staying in . Well im not saying we should. We should. You didnt ask me that. Well, im just about to. Oh, okay. What do you think should do . Well, speaking personal plea, to be very clear , im speaking to be very clear, im speaking as Marc Francois. I would now, given the events of the last few years, given the boats, given what ben has said about National Security , im prepared to security, im prepared to contemplate that we should leave. To contemplate. We should leave. Yes. Will this be in the conservative manifesto . Im not in the government, nigel. Do you want it to be in the conservative manifesto . I would like it to be. Would it be a referendum or something that i mean, would it be a referendum vote or something that majority something that a majority conservative something that a majority con not ative to sit here and im not going to sit here and make all that up off the cuff. I mean, you people want to know, look, i think that the current position unsustainable, all position is unsustainable, all right . Minister right . The Prime Minister faithfully promised the british people going to stop the people he was going to stop the boats. Stopped boats. Well, he hasnt stopped them knows them yet, and Everybody Knows it. So were going to have to do something different. I think we now have what you might now need to have what you might call a National Debate about the echr. And if the Strasbourg Court continue to overreach their powers, then it may be that we have to leave. All right, Marc Francois, thank you. Thank you. They get there in the end, it takes them a very, very long time , but they get there in the time, but they get there in the end. I we all know what marc end. I we all know what Marc Francois really thinks. Of course we do. We all know what course we do. We all know what ben wallace really thinks. Of course we do. And i do expect therell be something in the next conservative manifesto. How next conservative manifesto. How sincere it will be. I dont know. But i do suspect that it will be there. In a moment, were going to talk about china, the feet today revealing that the feet today revealing that the Prime Minister knew full well about this suspected china spy well about this suspected china spy that had been arrested, but still carried on with wanting to reset our relationship. And unbelievably , Kemi Badenoch unbelievably, Kemi Badenoch saying two days ago that we have to maintain our relationship with china , otherwise we cant with china, otherwise we cant get to net zero. Dear, oh dear, oh, dear. I need a break. See you radio. Well, lets get some of your reactions as to that debate on echr prompted by our former defence secretary. One viewer says it is imperative that we leave the echr because we shouldnt have foreign judges in foreign countries. Having any jurisdiction over our sovereign decisions , especially regarding decisions, especially regarding deportation and immigration, michael says the echr is out of date and we should leave it immediately. Now that we are a sovereign state, we should have our own human rights charter, not bend the knee of europe. Well, viewers , im absolutely well, viewers, im absolutely with you on this, and i think its very like eu member ship. Its one of those areas where i think westminster is detached from where a very large chunk of the country are now. Our the country are now. Our attitudes towards china do seem to be at best confused. We learn to be at best confused. We learn from the ft today its confirmed that the arrest of a suspected spy that the arrest of a suspected spy was known to rishi sunak, yet he still pushed on, attempting to reset the relationship and indeed sent the foreign secretary, James Cleverly to beijing. Some would argue , of course, we should argue, of course, we should always maintain negotiations , always maintain negotiations, even with people that we disagree. But it does seem that disagree. But it does seem that our policy, our Foreign Policy with china is at very best confused. Im joined by austin williams, journalist and author on china and a visiting Research Fellow at the thlu university in china. And i managed to pronounce that without getting