European judges are ‘treading on national sovereignty’ blasts Suella Braverman as the Home Secretary leaves the option of the UK leaving the ECHR open
Suella Braverman yesterday attacked the ‘politicised’ Strasbourg judges for ‘treading on national sovereignty’.
The Home Secretary’s remarks appeared to pave the way for a shift in policy on Britain’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.
She insisted no one in Government is talking of leaving the convention ‘right now’, but left the option open.
Mrs Braverman also insisted the Bibby Stockholm migrant accommodation barge is safe, as the Labour-supporting firefighters’ union threatened legal action over its use.
She added that she remained ‘confident’ that the Government’s Rwanda asylum deal – which has twice been blocked on human rights grounds – will be proved lawful in an upcoming Supreme Court hearing.
Suella Braverman yesterday attacked the ‘politicised’ Strasbourg judges for ‘treading on national sovereignty’
On membership of the European Court of Human Rights, which oversees implementation of the convention, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘My personal views are clear. It’s a politicised court. It’s interventionist.
‘It’s treading on the territory of national sovereignty. But no one’s talking about leaving the ECHR right now. We’re working to deliver our plan. We’ve enacted landmark legislation. We are confident in the lawfulness of our agreement with Rwanda.’
Conservative backbenchers are lobbying for Britain to leave the ECHR, and Mrs Braverman said last October that ongoing membership of the ‘centralised’ Strasbourg court was ‘not the direction that people called for with Brexit’.
Tory strategists are understood to be looking at pledging options for human rights reform in the next election manifesto.
Meanwhile, the Fire Brigades Union has sent a ‘pre-action protocol letter’ to Mrs Braverman outlining its concerns over safety aboard the Bibby Stockholm barge, which is berthed at Dorset’s Portland Port.
‘Let me be clear that I’m confident barges are safe,’ Mrs Braverman said. ‘This barge has accommodated people in the past – asylum seekers, oil rig workers – and barges of this kind have been used to accommodate asylum seekers, for example in Scotland, so I’m very confident that this barge is safe for human habitation.
![Mrs Braverman also insisted the Bibby Stockholm migrant accommodation barge is safe, as the Labour-supporting firefighters' union threatened legal action over its use](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/08/28/22/74809513-12454675-image-a-5_1693258061513.jpg)
Mrs Braverman also insisted the Bibby Stockholm migrant accommodation barge is safe, as the Labour-supporting firefighters’ union threatened legal action over its use
‘We followed all of the advice and protocols in anticipation of embarkation.’ Mrs Braverman accused the FBU of launching a ‘political attack’ on the Government but was unable to say when asylum seekers would be returning to the 506-bed vessel.
The Home Secretary also refused to rule out the expansion of electronic tagging for migrants who arrive illegally across the Channel. A pilot scheme was launched last year.
Wider use of the tags could help address migrants who abscond, according to The Times. ‘We need to exercise a level of control of people if we’re to remove them from the UK,’ Mrs Braverman told Sky News. ‘We are considering a range of options. We have a couple of thousand detention places in our existing removal capacity.
‘We will be working intensively to increase that but it’s clear we’re exploring a range of options, all options, to ensure that we have that level of control over people so that they can flow through our systems swiftly to enable us to thereafter remove them from the UK.’
Figures published last week showed asylum costs footed by the taxpayer have doubled in a year to nearly £4 billion.
It also emerged the asylum backlog has soared to a record high of 175,000 people waiting for an initial decision at the end of June.
The new Illegal Migration Act places a legal duty on the Government to detain and remove migrants arriving in the UK illegally to a safe third country such as Rwanda.
The number of Channel migrants to reach the UK so far this year is 19,804, down 21 per cent on this point last year.