John Redwood says Conservatives don't need 'long talks' about leaving the ECtHR

John Redwood says the government should immediately abandon the ECtHR. Photo: John Lawrence

The Tories don't need a 'long talk' about Former cabinet minister said whether to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and take alternative measures to ensure immigration measures are fully implemented.

Sir John Redwood said that the Conservative Party should not wait until the next general election to announce the rejection of the ECtHR because «we must solve the problem now».

He argued that ministers should instead come up with a «very short» and «simple» new law that would «repeal» European judges' rulings hindering the government's border policy.

His comments came after The Telegraph said Rishi Sunak would face calls from about a third of her cabinet to put withdrawal from the ECHR at the heart of the next Tory election campaign if the courts blocked migrant flights to Rwanda.

At least eight cabinet ministers stand ready to support the move if ECtHR membership prevents the UK from defending its borders.

But Sir John said the government should not wait for the next election to resolve the issue.

On Thursday morning he told Talk TV: «Today I advise the government not to have this long conversation about the common position on human rights in Europe with some kind of manifesto commitment for a year or more, we must solve the problem now.< /p>

Deportation flights to Rwanda have been suspended since last June, when a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg issued an 11-hour injunction.

The Supreme Court is due to rule on the legality of the policy in the fall after a series of domestic legal challenges.

Supreme Court

Ministers are confident they will win their case in the Supreme Court, but have been warned that the government cannot go to the European Court of Justice if they lose, as only individuals can appeal.

If the government does win Rwanda's case, it is likely that immigration lawyers representing migrants will challenge the decision in Strasbourg.

This prompted ministers to develop a contingency law allowing deportation flights to be carried out while ignoring parts of the Human Rights Act if they lose the case.

The general principle that the UK can override decisions of the European Court of Justice is already in place.

The government's Irregular Migration Act gives ministers the power to ignore future injunctions, known as rulings under rule 39.

The European Convention on Human Rights entered into force in 1953.

This is an international treaty. which affects 46 states in the Council of Europe, but is not a convention of the European Union, so Brexit did not affect the UK's compliance with its principles.

Its decision was delivered by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, with decisions binding on states, convention signatories.