UK

Suella Braverman attacks 'politicised' European judges in fresh vow to stop the boats 

She refused to rule out the prospect of Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Charles Hymas
Mon, 28 August 2023 

Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, seen in Westminster as she tours TV studios during morning interviews - Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press

Suella Braverman has attacked European judges as “politicised” and “interventionist” by treading in UK national sovereignty as she refused to rule out the prospect of Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Home Secretary said the Government would do “whatever it takes” to stop the boats when asked if the UK would leave the ECHR should the Supreme Court and Strasbourg judges continue to thwart its policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.

However, she said the Government was not thinking or talking about the possibility of leaving the ECHR “right now” but was instead working to deliver on its “stop the boats” plan.

Speaking on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme, Mrs Braverman also said the Government would only be able to start operationalising its new small boats legislation after the Supreme Court rules later this year on the legality of the Rwanda deportation flights.

Rishi Sunak’s Illegal Migration Act, which became law last month, gives ministers powers to detain anyone who enters the UK illegally and swiftly deport them to a third safe country such as Rwanda or to their home nation.

However, flights to Rwanda have been grounded since June 2022 when a single Strasbourg judge from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) granted an injunction against them, known as a Rule 39 order, behind closed doors at the last minute.

The injunction suspended flights until the legality of the policy was decided by UK courts. This process will come to a head in October when the Supreme Court determines whether the Court of Appeal was right, by a two to one majority, to rule the flights unlawful on the basis that asylum seekers would be unsafe in Rwanda.

Mrs Braverman, who declared her support for quitting the ECHR during the Tory leadership race, said: “The Strasbourg court is in my view a politicised court.

“It’s been expanding upon national sovereignty. Last year we saw very plainly how the Strasbourg court thwarted our attempts for flights to take off to Rwanda through an opaque last minute process which undermined the decisions of this government.”
‘We’ve enacted landmark legislation’

Asked if she wanted the UK out of the ECHR, she said: “My personal views are clear. As I said, 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 are working to deliver our plan. We’ve enacted landmark legislation. We are confident in the lawfulness of our agreement with Rwanda.

“I’m confident in its lawfulness and we hope the Supreme Court agrees with us and pending that outcome. We will be doing whatever it takes to ensure that we can stop the boats.

Asked again if she supported leaving the ECHR, she replied: “It’s absolutely clear that if we’re thwarted in the courts, because of the ECHR, if we are thwarted, in Strasburg, we will do whatever it takes. The Prime Minister has been adamant about that. There must be no stone left.”

Mrs Braverman confirmed the Government was looking at tagging migrants as one of a “range of options” to enable ministers to enact its plans to detain anyone who arrived in the UK illegally so they could be deported to a safe third country.

Ministers have been forced to consider further measures because of a shortage of immigration detention places, of which there are currently only 2,500, and the continued surge in migrants crossing the Channel with 19,000 having arrived so far this year.

The Home Secretary admitted that key provisions of its small boats laws could not be enacted until the legality of the Rwanda deportation plan was decided by the Supreme Court. A verdict is expected at the end of November or December after the hearing in the second week of October.
‘Rwanda partnerships’

“We will have to wait for the outcome of the litigation in the Supreme Court relating to our Rwanda partnerships before we can properly operationalise the main provisions of the Act,” she said.

She refused to give a date for the return of asylum seekers to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, after all 39 migrants were evacuated following the discovery of Legionella bacteria in the water supply, a bug that can cause the deadly Legionnaires’ disease.

However, she said she had made clear her “anger” and “frustration” at the decision to allow asylum seekers onto the barge before the contractors had received back the Legionella test result.

Ministers were left in the dark about the problems until nearly three days after the discovery. “Am I frustrated with what’s happened? Am I angry with what’s happened? Absolutely, I am, and I’ve made it very clear to the parties involved, to the civil servants who were involved in it, who oversaw that,” she said.

“I ultimately take responsibility. The buck stops with me for everything that happens at the Home Office. And we’re working very quickly to remedy the situation and move people back onto the barge as quickly as possible.”