Home Secretary Suella Braverman is the only cabinet minister to publicly support leaving the ECtHR. Photo: Stéphane Rousseau/PA Wire
Rishi Sunak will face calls from about a third of his cabinet to put rejection of the European Convention on Human Rights at the center of the Tory campaign if the courts block flights to deport migrants to Rwanda.
The Telegraph reported that at least eight cabinet ministers, along with other senior Tories, are ready to support the move if membership in the ECtHR does not allow the UK to protect its borders from illegal immigration.
This is ahead of the Supreme Court's decision on whether Rwanda's policy is legal. The Court of Appeal ruled that flights must remain blocked due to the risk of violation of the rights of asylum seekers if they are deported to Rwanda.
Deportation flights to Rwanda have been suspended since June last year. when a single judge of the European Court of Human Rights issued an 11-hour injunction suspending the first expulsion of asylum seekers to a Central African state.
Mr. Sunak has resisted calls to leave the ECtHR even though the government is illegal The Migration Act gives ministers the power to ignore future injunctions, known as rule 39 court orders.
On Wednesday, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick chided Lee Anderson, Vice President The Conservative Party, in that he stated that the government had failed to deal with illegal immigration.
The dispute originated as an asylum-seekers riot against moving to the country's first migrant barge threatened to distract from a week of immigration policy announcements.
The European Convention on Human Rights, an international treaty, entered into force in 1953. It affects the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, but is not a convention of the European Union, so Brexit did not affect the UK's commitment to its principles.
The decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is binding on the states concerned.
Ministers are confident that they will win the case in the Supreme Court, but they were told that the government could not appeal to the Strasbourg Court if they lost, as only individuals can appeal.
Ask on Wednesday if the government would withdraw from Rwanda if the ECtHR loses Rwanda's case, Mr Jenrick said: order in the asylum system.”
To a repeated question, he said: “We will do everything that is required, we will take all the necessary measures. But we are absolutely confident that the arrangements we have made with Rwanda are in line with our obligations under international law.
“I am encouraged by the fact that the courts have so far generally agreed with this, and I hope that The Supreme Court will allow us to move forward in our partnership with Rwanda later this year, early next year.”
Should the UK withdraw from the ECtHR?
While Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is the only cabinet minister to publicly support leaving the ECtHR, others are now privately expressing support. A cabinet source estimates that at least eight people would support the withdrawal if the courts maintained the flight ban.
“Opinion in the parliamentary party has hardened significantly, as evidenced by the relative ease of passing the Law on Illegal Migration. This is reflected in the Cabinet of Ministers,” the source said. «The real question is who will be caring enough to oppose given the situation, and it's hard to imagine who it will be.»
Another cabinet minister, a close ally of Sunak, said: «The government does not rule out this. We've spent a lot of time as a party trying to find a place where we can live with the ECtHR and we still want to, but ultimately if you get to the point between delivery and no, then I don't think you can completely rule it out. '.
Nearly 70 Conservative MPs, many of whom were members of the Red Wall, supported leaving the ECtHR in a vote on the Private Members Bill last year. MPs other than Brexit supporters, such as the New Conservatives, are likely to face pressure from rank-and-file Tories to support leaving ahead of the election.
It came Wednesday when a row broke out between Mr Jenrick and Mr Anderson after the latter told GB News: “We are in government and we have failed at this, there is no doubt about that. We said we'd fix it…it's a failure.»
Asked if he agreed, Mr Jenrick replied to BBC Breakfast «No, I don't» and listed a number of measures taken by the government, including new deals with Albania and France.
Conservative Vice Chairman Lee Anderson says the Tories have failed on immigration. https://t.co/1dt81hXT80
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) August 9, 2023
However, he defended Mr. Anderson over his comments that migrants refusing to be placed on barges should «to… — back to France», although he made it clear that he would not use the same language.
“What Lee was expressing was the fact that the housing we provide as a country for huge amounts of money, billions of pounds a year, is decent. It's good quality and meets our legal obligations,” said Mr Jenrick.
Meanwhile, asylum seekers' uprising against the move from taxpayer-funded hotels to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, was growing. As of Wednesday, 35 people have refused to move out of their hotels despite threats to revoke their right to publicly funded housing.
Migrant advocates, supported by the charity Care4Calais, have successfully proven that some of them have a «severe fear of water» after being injured by watching family members drown.
They also dispute the «inadequate» screening of migrants as to their suitability to board and the lack of notice of transfer from their previous accommodation.
Mr Jenrick previously said that «significant some» of those who refused changed their minds. They are believed to be asylum seekers unrelated to Care4Calais and over 30 people have already boarded the barge.
The same lawyers backed by the charity were instrumental in stopping the government's plans to deport migrants to Rwanda last year. If the government wins Rwanda's appeal to the Supreme Court in the fall, it is likely that immigration lawyers representing migrants will challenge the decision in Strasbourg.
0908 YouGov Poll _ Plan for Rwanda to develop a contingency law that would allow deportations to be carried out by ignoring parts of the Human Rights Act if they lose the case.
“The government should pass legislation in September that will go into effect as an insurance policy in case they lose in the Supreme Court,” said Richard Akins, a professor of law and constitutional government at Oxford University and head of the policy exchange's litigation department. power project.
David Jones, a former cabinet minister, said: “The government should go to the Council of Europe to negotiate the ECHR. This does not correspond to the circumstances that we are seeing at the beginning of the 21st century.
«The Council of Europe could agree to such negotiations, but otherwise the government must take steps in domestic law to abolish elements of the Convention that make it impossible to control our own borders.»
Former Minister Sir John Hayes, Chairman The Tory Common Sense group, said leaving the ECtHR should be «on the table» if the Prime Minister is to fulfill his promise to stop the boats.
“Continued obstruction through the ECtHR goes against expectations of what sovereignty should look like and means we can’t do what parliament has committed to do and what the public wants us to do,” he added.
MPs believe it is unlikely that the government will be able to get the law withdrawn from the ECtHR through parliament before the elections, instead it will require a mandate from the country in a nationwide poll.
Source number 10 said: “Our Law on Stopping Boats will make the changes necessary to reduce the incentives for people to risk their lives by making illegal crossings while remaining a party to the ECHR. Our world-leading partnership with Rwanda will work in parallel as part of our boat stop plan.
“The Court of Appeal has made it clear that the policy of moving asylum seekers to a safe third country to process their claims is in line with the Convention on refugees, and we remain confident in the legitimacy of the partnership. Now we are focused on the next steps and our attractiveness.”
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