Rwanda: Dominic Raab vows to scrap Labor’s Human Rights Act

A new bill of rights designed to accelerate the removal of channel migrants is expected to be unveiled next week.

Dominic Rabo Confirmed yesterday that the law will include measures to effectively ignore the injunction of the European Court of Human Rights.

Such orders from Strasbourg-based judges were used to cancel Tuesday night’s inaugural flight Rwanda, However, peers are expected to block major reforms to the proposed legislation.

Members of the Lords said that despite the commitment of the government’s manifesto, it could face “a lot of opposition”.

The government hired a Boeing 767 from a Spanish airline to pick up a group of men arriving on the Kent coast to process their asylum claims in Rwanda.

But a last-minute intervention by a Strasbourg-based court prevented the flight from taking off.

Justice Secretary Raab’s remarks from yesterday’s Mail revealed that he was investigating the possibility of disobeying Strasbourg’s injunction at the last minute.

But he said Britain would remain within the European Convention on Human Rights, following calls from Tory backbenchers for Britain to leave the treaty. “I don’t think it is right for the Strasbourg court in this case or in general to assume the power of injunction and then enforce it,” said Mr Raab, who is also the deputy prime minister.

‘It’s not based in convention and I don’t think it’s a matter of policy. ‘I certainly believe that they should not have a legally binding effect under UK law.’

He said that it would not be possible to ignore the measures while the Human Rights Act is in force. But he said ‘we will fully address this with a Bill of Rights’, which would replace Labor’s widely hated legislation.

The bill will also include measures to ease deportation and other forms of eviction. For example, it is expected to curtail the exercise of the ‘right to private and family life’ by foreign criminals.

Conservative peer Lord Blencathra, a former Home Ministry minister, told the Mail: ‘I am sure the Bill of Rights will face opposition at Lord’s, but not from me.

‘It will face a lot of opposition from the crossbench of the Socialists, with a large number of lawyers in Labor and Lords. The Human Rights Act was Labor’s fault and yet they consider it sacrosanct.

Mr Rabb said his Bill of Rights would remove a human rights law from the statute books and make the process of removing asylum seekers easier.

‘We must try to ensure that domestic law takes precedence, especially after the intervention by Strasbourg this week.’ He predicted that the bill would eventually be part of a ‘ping pong’ between the two houses and that ‘we would have to rely on the Commons to overturn many of the Lord’s amendments’.

Widespread protests in parliament mean the bill – unlikely to become law until next year – could take even longer to get into the statute book. A colleague said: ‘The government can expect trouble. Whether this will be trouble enough depends on how Labor reacts to it, and they should be careful given their attitude to immigration in marginal seats.’

The crossbencher said: ‘The Lawyers’ brigade at Lord’s will not buy the Bill of Rights at all.

‘They feel that the so-called progress in human rights law must be protected and that whatever the present government produces may be with the intention of undermining the current law.’ The flight to Rwanda was grounded after a series of legal challenges in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court from asylum seekers for being sent on a one-way trip to East Africa. All three British courts refused to intervene. But the home office had to leave the first flight after lawyers for six migrants were due to go to Strasbourg’s judges at the 11th hour.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed to pursue the policy she insists is necessary to prevent Channel migrants from risking their lives in small boats. But authorities are understood to assess the full impact of the Strasbourg injunction, and whether they can prevent all future eviction attempts.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed to carry forward the policy she says is necessary to stop channel migrants risking their lives in small boats.

But officials are understood to be assessing the full impact of the Strasbourg injunction, and whether they can stop all future eviction attempts.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘The government believes that it has presented a workable solution, a legal solution to this difficult problem and we look forward to moving forward with it.’

England’s top barrister accused Boris Johnson of ‘bullying’ lawyers last night after the PM claimed he was ‘inciting the work of criminal gangs’. Bar Council President Mark Feinholz QC told Times Radio that there had been “multiple death threats” against immigration lawyers and called the comments “horrific”.