Sunak ready to withdraw from European Convention on Human Rights: is it really so?
Senior Tories have expressed concern about reports that Rishi Sunak may be willing to take the UK out of the European convention on human rights if that turns out to be the only way to stop the courts blocking his plan to ban all people arriving in small boats across the Channel from claiming asylum in the UK.
Sunak has promised to publish legislation to implement this promise shortly and, according to a report by Tim Shipman in the Sunday Times, this could put the government on course to make withdrawal from the EHCR a manifesto commitment at the next election.
In his story Shipman said:
“Sunak and Suella Braverman, the home secretary, are finalising plans for the most draconian immigration legislation seen in this country. Officials say the plans, to be unveiled within weeks, will take Britain to the “boundaries” of international law.
But senior figures say if judges at the European court of human rights in Strasbourg rule that the new plans are unlawful, the prime minister is open to withdrawing from the convention.
“The PM has been clear he wants to introduce legislation that meets our international obligations,” a source familiar with Sunak’s thinking said. “This bill will go as far as possible within international law. We are pushing the boundaries of what is legally possible, while staying within the ECHR. And we are confident that when it is tested in the courts, we will win”.
Sir Robert Buckland, a Tory former justice secretary, told the Financial Times that leaving the convention, which is overseen by the Council of Europe, would be a mistake. He said:
“It would be an undesirable state of affairs if the UK was to follow Russia out of the Council of Europe … I don’t think there would be a majority for it”.
Sir Bob Neill, the Conservative chair of the Commons justice committee, told the same paper that this would be a “red line” for many people in the party. He said:
“If Conservatives don’t believe in the rule of law, what do we believe in? Are we going to put ourselves in the same company as Russia and Belarus?
It’s not a virtue to push the law to the limits. Adherence to and membership of the ECHR is a red line for many Conservatives. It would be unbelievable for a Conservative government to leave it”.
According to Eleni Courea, in today’s London Playbook briefing from Politico, the Tory backbencher Jackie Doyle-Price also dismissed that idea in a message on a WhatsApp group for Conservative MPs. In a message seen by Courea, Doyle-Price said that “willy waving about leaving the ECHR will do zilch”. Doyle-Price went on:
“I have been a member of the Conservative party for 36 years. This group leaves me cold. Upholding the law should never be a matter for debate for a Conservative. Our Home Office is crap. If the government wants to have a phone[y] war over the ECHR instead of sorting itself out it can do it without me”.
