Labour will think about ‘sturdy’ adjustments to how Britain interprets European Convention on Human Rights, Attorney General Lord Hermer tells friends

Labour will consider ‘robust’ changes to the way British courts interpret the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), the Attorney General said today.

Reform has said it will leave the Convention to make it easier to deport illegal migrants and the Conservatives are set to follow suit. 

Ministers have also come under pressure from former Labour Home Secretaries Jack Straw and Lord Blunkett, who have called for the UK to ‘decouple’ from the treaty.

Lord Richard Hermer KC told peers that the use of Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to private and family life, must be looked at as part of a Home Office review.

Article 8 has been repeatedly used by illegal migrants and serious criminals – including killers, drug dealers and rapists – to frustrate efforts to deport them from the UK. 

Appearing before the Lords Constitution Committee, Lord Hermer said Strasbourg case law was very ‘permissive’ and allows states an ‘enormous margin of appreciation’ on what they can do in the asylum and immigration space.

‘It has developed particularly over the last five or six years, and I am concerned to ensure that domestically, we have kept pace with that,’ he said. 

‘Some of our colleagues on the Council of Europe have, I think, more effective, more robust mechanisms that are compliant with Article 8 that we need to look at. We are kicking the tyres hard at every level.’

Lord Richard Hermer KC told peers that the use of Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to private and family life, must be looked at as part of a Home Office review

He said this included looking at case worker guidance, immigration rules, primary legislation, and the Government is adopting a ‘very proactive litigation strategy’.

Lord Hermer was forced to apologise in May for likening criticism of the ECHR to 1930s Germany. 

Today, he insisted the Prime Minister has been ‘absolutely crystal clear’ that the UK will not be leaving the treaty, adding it would be completely contrary to the national interest to do so.

He also rejected a study by the Policy Exchange think-tank that suggested leaving the ECHR would not breach the Good Friday Agreement. 

‘I saw that analysis. It’s just wrong. As you know, the European Convention is expressly baked in to that agreement. We would be in breach of it if we left the Convention.

‘That’s the plain legal view. I’m sure it would be the view not only held by Ireland, but also by the EU. It would do enormous damage to the interests of this country. It would be deeply worrying for Northern Ireland .

‘But it would be a clear breach of the obligations that we’ve held.’

Numerous cases have emerged of criminals using Article 8 to dodge deportation, including a 70-year-old heroin dealer who used the legislation to avoid being sent back to his native Turkey.

Fatmir Bleta was sentenced to 13 prison after leaving Albania after allegedly shooting a man in the head with a Kalashnikov rifle

The convicted criminal, who was granted anonymity, claimed deportation would breach human right to a family life – even though he had an extramarital affair during a previous trip to the country. 

He later took part in a wedding ceremony with his mistress to preserve her family honour but said it was ‘not a serious relationship’. 

Another notorious case involved Fatmir Bleta, who fled to Britain from Albania in December 1998 after allegedly shooting a man in the head with a Kalashnikov rifle.

After arriving in Britain he sought asylum – falsely claiming to be Kosovan. This request was refused, but he was granted indefinite leave to remain and gained British citizenship in 2017. 

He was convicted of making an untrue statement to procure a passport the following year, along with three other counts of dishonesty.

After completing a second jail sentence in 2018, the Home Office tried to deport him but it was argued that it would violate his family rights as it would be ‘unduly harsh’ on his wife and four children, who joined him in the UK in 2000. 

Last year, it also emerged that two of Bleta’s children have been convicted and jailed for drug offences.

His daughter Sara, 28, a former actress, was jailed for four years for supplying class A and B drugs while son Dorian, 37, is serving an 18-year prison sentence for trafficking cocaine.