THE Tories have announced a bid to strip migrants of their human rights in challenging deportations -in a move critics have branded “reprehensible”.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has unveiled plans to prevent the use of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in immigration decisions.
The Conservative Party announced it would table an amendment to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill which would ensure the Human Rights Act, which incorporates the ECHR, cannot be used to appeal deportation or other immigration decisions.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Our ability to manage immigration is hindered by extremely distorted interpretations of international laws.”
Philp (below) told Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “We think that the way UK judges are applying the ECHR in our domestic UK courts has become out of control. They’ve stretched these definitions so far.
“Some of these ECHR articles are very vaguely worded. Things like a ‘right to a family life’ or ‘freedom from degrading treatment’. Now, what do those mean in practice? Well, they mean whatever a judge says they mean.
“If judges interpret those reasonably, that’s fine, but what we’ve seen in the last few years in the UK courts is judges have expanded these definitions wider and wider.”
Philp added: “The Human Rights Act allows judges in the UK to apply their interpretation of these very vague ECHR articles and they’ve stretched these definitions so far that in some cases it just defies common sense.
“We don’t think UK judges should do that any longer for immigration cases. Instead, those judges should just apply the UK law passed by Parliament, so we can restore some common sense.”
SNP MP Pete Wishart (below), who sits on the Westminster committee scrutinising the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, said the proposals were “appalling”.
He said: ““Human rights belong to everyone and it is reprehensible for the Tories to suggest they be removed from any individual in our society.
“Any politician with an ounce of humanity will oppose these appalling proposals and stand up for human rights.
"This is the kind of cruel, hostile and nonsensical ideas that come from the very same party who made a law to state that Rwanda is a safe place, despite an abundance of evidence and international courts saying otherwise.
“Now, they want politicians deciding on human rights cases as part of their contemptible immigration obsessions – it’s sickening.”
The SNP said that the Tories were pushing anti-immigrant policies “out of nothing more than fear of Reform”, adding: “It’s pathetic and down-right shameful.”
