Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure from members of his cabinet to pull Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights, a move that could cause a dramatic rift in the government ahead of the general election next years are expected.
On the first day of the ruling Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester, Leveling Up Secretary Michael Gove, joined by Business Secretary Kemi Badenooch, said Britain’s membership of the ECHR, which some Tories say is preventing the government from deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda , should be prevented. For discussion. Interior Secretary Suella Braverman has long been a proponent of leaving the convention.
Mr Sunak has made stopping small boats carrying asylum seekers arriving from France a top priority that he wants voters to measure up to. Deporting people who come to Rwanda is a central part of that policy, but the court in Strasbourg, which oversees the ECtHR, has stepped in to block the efforts. Meanwhile, the UK Supreme Court is also expected to rule on whether the plan is legal by the end of this year.
Sunak’s team expects to win the British case, but if they fail to do so, pressure will increase on the Prime Minister to withdraw. Britain must “keep every option open,” Gove said on Sunday when asked about the convention. Gove backed Badenoch as party leader last year.
The issue is potentially seismic, given that Britain was deeply involved in drafting and signing it in 1951. Although it is not administered by the European Union, it has become a focus of Brexit supporters, who see it as a way to allow foreign control over British immigration policy. If he pulls out, Sunak would be forced to revisit accusations that Britain is abandoning its leadership on the world stage.
In the ECHR’s seventy-year history, only two countries have left it: Greece did so during a period of military rule, but later rejoined. President Vladimir Putin’s Russia also left the framework. The basic principles of the treaty include issues such as free elections, respect for property rights and access to education.
“I do not feel that in order to achieve what we need to achieve, which is to protect our borders, we need to leave the ECHR,” said Secretary of State James Cleverly.
Mr Sunak would also have an immediate headache if he took Britain out. The convention was included in the 1998 peace treaty that ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. “What is the alternative to the Good Friday Agreement?” This is what Minister of Security Tom Tugendhat said.
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