Attorney General says UK can tackle migration crisis 'within' ECHR

Signs of Cabinet split as Rishi Sunak’s top legal adviser says Britain CAN tackle small boats crisis within European human rights convention and stresses PM is ‘committed’ to remaining a member – just hours after Dominic Raab refused to rule out leaving

• Attorney General Victoria Prentis says UK can deal with migration ‘within’ ECHR
• Just hours earlier, Deputy PM Dominic Raab refused to rule out Britain quitting 

Rishi Sunak’s top legal adviser today insisted Britain could tackle the small boats crisis while remaining signed up to European human rights law.

Attorney General Victoria Prentis stressed the UK, like other nations, would be able to deal with migration issues ‘within’ the Europan Convention on Human Rights.

She added the Government was ‘committed to remaining a member of the ECHR’ and branded suggestions that Britain could quit the convention as ‘press speculation’.

But, in signs of a split within Cabinet over the issue, Mrs Prentis’s comments came just hours after Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, refused to rule out the UK leaving the ECHR in order to tackle illegal migration.

The UK’s adoption of the convention and its membership of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights has come under scrutiny ever since judges blocked the proposed Rwanda migration scheme with an 11th-hour ruling last June.

Attorney General Victoria Prentis stressed the UK, like other nations, would be able to deal with migration issues ‘within’ the Europan Convention on Human Rights

Her comments came just hours after Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, who is also Deputy PM, refused to rule out the UK leaving the ECHR in order to tackle illegal migration

Rishi Sunak has committed to delivering on the Rwanda migration scheme and pledged to pass new laws in the coming weeks to ‘stop small boats’

The Rwanda scheme, which would see potentially anyone illegally entering the UK given a one-way ticket to the African country to have their asylum claim processed, was championed by ex-PM Boris Johnson as a means of cracking down on Channel migrant crossings.

Mr Sunak has committed to delivering on the policy as PM and pledged to pass new laws in the coming weeks to ‘stop small boats’.

It has recently been claimed the legislation being drawn up by Downing Street and the Home Office will take Britain to the ‘boundaries’ of international law, with Mr Sunak said to be prepared to withdraw from the ECHR if necessary.

But, speaking to the House of Commons’ Justice Committee this afternoon, Mrs Prentis insisted the Government was ‘committed’ to remaining part of the ECHR.

‘The Government’s position is that the Government is committed to remaining a member of the ECHR,’ she told MPs.

‘I was in Strasbourg last week I had a really useful trip… it was made very clear to me that we are a country that is highly valued as part of that court and that we have the fewest infractions against us of any nation, that our position and, indeed, our lawyers on human rights are very much valued and part of their tradition in Strasbourg now.

‘So, yes, the Government remains committed to the ECHR. 

‘There has been press speculation. I think where it leads me is, we have a specific issue with migration at the moment which is very much top of the agenda.

‘But what I’ve heard the Prime Minister say is that other nations within the ECHR are able to deal with their migration issues and we should be too, within the ECHR.’

Mrs Prentis also suggested that Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement would need to be rewritten if the UK were to leave the ECHR.

She added: ‘I think the ECHR is embedded into the Good Friday Agreement as it stands. Of course, if necessary, work could be done to look at that.

‘But certainly the Government’s position is we are committed to remaining within the ECHR. I don’t even think that’s something we need to consider at the moment.’

The UK’s membership of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights has come under scrutiny ever since judges blocked Rwanda scheme with an 11th-hour ruling last June

Mrs Prentis appeared to offer a different stance on the ECHR to Mr Raab, who earlier told the Commons that ministers had ‘made it clear that we would not rule out ever withdrawing from the ECHR in the future’.

‘We certainly need to make sure that we have a viable legal regime that allows us to tackle illegal immigration,’ he added.

Mr Raab is currently pursuing plans to introduce a Bill of Rights to replace Labour’s 1998 Human Rights Act, which incorporated into UK law the rights contained in the ECHR. 

Speaking at justice questions in the Commons, Mr Raab condemned ‘mission creep’ and the ‘expanding and elastic interpretations of the ECHR’ since it was first drafted in 1950.

Despite having refused to rule out Britain leaving the ECHR, the Deputy PM told MPs that his Bill of Rights ‘will envisage us remaining a state party to the ECHR’.

But he added it would allow ‘the margin of appreciation to restore some common sense to our human rights regime’.

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