Make ‘proper changes’ to Human Rights court over Rwanda, demands Tory MP as even party left demand urgent overhaul
RISHI Sunak needs to make “proper changes” to the European Convention on Human Rights in order to stop the boats, a senior centrist Tory has declared.
One Nation MP Matt Warman made the demand on The Sun’s new politics show Never Mind the Ballots – heaping even more pressure on the PM to harden his asylum and deportation policy.
It comes as the number of migrants who have arrived in the UK on small boats so far in 2023 has hit the highest level ever recorded for the first three months of a year.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s flagship Bill to deport refugees to Rwanda is currently stuck in the House of Lords after peers made further attempts to water it down.
Speaking to The Sun’s political editor Harry Cole about whether the PM needs to take the fight to the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Warman said: “I want to see the ECHR reformed properly, not just nibbling around the edges.
“Proper changes that make it work not just for us, but for refugees themselves and for other countries around the world.
“So there is real work to do,” he told the show, which can be watched from 7pm on thesun.co.uk and the Sun’s YT channel.
Insisting the PM is the right man for the job, he added: “You look at what Rishi Sunak has achieved with the Windsor Framework, with a whole host of other globally significant negotiations, I think he could deliver that.
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“And it would work better, as I say, for refugees, for the UK, and for countries around the world.”
The ECHR is a Council of Europe convention, rather than a European Union one, so the UK’s adherence to it was not directly affected by Brexit.
A few Tories have repeatedly urged the Government to pull out of the ECHR, with the debate intensifying when the European Court of Human Rights effectively prevented the initial removal of asylum-seekers to Rwanda in 2022.
Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who quit in protest of Mr Sunak’s handling of the Rwanda scheme, said earlier this year Britain’s membership to the convention is “unsustainable”.
He also warned other European countries are also increasingly becoming disillusioned with it.
But pulling out of the convention entirely would put the UK at odds with European nations and could also cause complications over the operation of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland and post-Brexit deals with the EU.
Mr Sunak has vowed he won’t let a “foreign court” stop him from getting flights up and running to Kigali and his Rwanda Bill empowers ministers to dismiss future Rule 39 orders from the Court of Human Rights.
But the Court’s President Siofra O’Leary recently told the PM he must comply with any of their injunctions to stop migrant removal flights taking off.
The Government continues to say they are “confident” the Bill is “compliant” with international law.
What is the European Court of Human Rights?
THE European Court of Human Rights is a judicial body established to oversee the protection of human rights in Europe.
It’s part of the Council of Europe and the court is based in Strasbourg, France.
When individuals feel that their rights have been violated in any of the member countries, and they have exhausted all possible legal remedies in their own country, they can take their case to the ECHR.
This could involve issues like freedom of speech, the right to a fair trial, privacy rights, and protection from torture or discrimination.
The court examines the cases brought before it and decides whether there has indeed been a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is the treaty that established the court and outlines the rights and freedoms that it protects.
If the ECHR finds that a violation has occurred, it can order the responsible country to take corrective actions, which might include changing laws or practices, or compensating the victims.