Suella Braverman’s calls to leave ECHR slammed by Tory MP as ‘unconservative’ | indy100

Suella Braverman's Rwanda plan proposal compared to Putin

BBC Radio 4 Today

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary sacked over remarks made about last week’s pro-Palestine march in London, has now turned her attention to the UK Government’s unlawful Rwanda plan following the Supreme Court ruling this week.

She's calling for us to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in yet another controversial newspaper article which even MPs in her own party have criticised.

The MP for Fareham, near Hampshire, detailed her “five tests” to ensure the success of the policy to deport asylum seekers to the African country in The Telegraph on Thursday, with the second one concerning the disapplication of “the entirety of the Human Rights Act”, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Refugee Convention.

“The Bill must enable flights before the next general election. Legislation must therefore circumvent the lengthy process of further domestic litigation, to ensure that flights can take off as soon as the new Bill becomes law,” she wrote.

While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has only gone so far as to say he is prepared to revisit “international relationships to remove the obstacles in our way”, and has not yet explicitly announced a breakaway from the ECHR or the court which enforces it (ECtHR), the prospect has already caused alarm in Braverman’s own party.

Damian Green, the former work and pensions secretary, wrote on Twitter/X: “The second test is the most unconservative statement I have ever heard from a Conservative politician. Giving the state the explicit power to override every legal constraint is what [Russian president Vladimir] Putin and [Chinese president] Xi do. We absolutely cannot go there.”

Ouch.

The second test is the most unconservative statement I have ever heard from a Conservative politician. Giving the state the explicit power to override every legal constraint is what Putin and Xi do. We absolutely cannot go there.
— (@)

And Labour MPs soon rushed in to support the senior Tory’s comments:

Damian this is the new @Conservatives party post truth, post Brexit and post liar Johnson. \ud83d\udc47
— (@)

Its just surreal- if they try to do so @DamianGreen we will all be with you defending all our liberties...
— (@)

Extraordinary warning about the extremists now on the Tory benches and in their membership ranks.
— (@)

Braverman’s call to leave the ECHR follows her scathing letter to Sunak earlier this week, in which she claimed she backed the PM’s leadership campaign based on a number of “firm assurances”, including one on excluding the ECHR’s operation in new legislation to “stop the boats”.

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