European meddling a threat to democracy, warns Cleverly

EUROPEAN human rights laws pose a ‘real moral hazard’ to democracy if they interfere with border control measures, James Cleverly warned last night.

In his strongest criticism yet of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Home Secretary suggested legal bids to block immigration measures had been ‘perverse’.

He added that the Government’s Rwanda scheme had faced ‘judicial activism’.

‘We’ve seen criticism of this plan and decisions about this plan which, in the UK Government’s point of view, is out of step with reality,’ Mr Cleverly said during a talk at a Romebased think-tank.

‘We’ve seen a large amount of judicial activism. It’s really important that post-war institutions – that we value enormously – evolve and adapt to meet modern situations.

‘There is a real moral hazard in saying to a nation state government that it cannot manage its own borders, or make decisions about who does and does not live inside the country. Because that undermines the integrity of the democratic process.’

Yesterday a European human rights watchdog warned against deporting migrants to Rwanda. Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said the policy denied people the right to have their asylum claims examined and limited judges’ powers.

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘Parliament has passed the legislation and it will soon receive Royal Assent.’