Leaving ECHR is ‘only way to stop the small boats crisis’

RISHI SUNAK will only solve the small boats crisis if he takes Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), says a former home office minister.

In an online article for

Sarah Dines, who was a home office minister until November last year, said Britain would be unable to stop “unprecedented” legal migration, prevent illegal Channel crossings or control the UK’s borders without leaving the ECHR.

She urged Rishi Sunak to follow through on his suggestion this week that he was prepared to quit the ECHR if it blocked his Rwanda deportation scheme by introducing emergency legislation to enact it.

“We have got to solve the problem now. A very short, simple piece of emergency legislation can be passed, giving the six months’ notice of withdrawal from the convention as required by article 58,” she said. “Failing that, place the question of who controls our borders at the heart of the Conservative election manifesto later this year.”

The Prime Minister said earlier this week that controlling immigration is more important than “membership of a foreign court”.

The comment was seen as Mr Sunak’s strongest hint yet that he could back leaving the ECHR, in the face of pressure from Right-wing MPs to do so.

Ms Dines claimed the ECHR had become highly politicised by being captured by “political activists intent on turning the court into a social engineering experiment”.

“At least 22 of the 100 Strasbourg judges who served between 2009 and 2019 are either former employees or associates of seven non-governmental human rights organisations that are highly active before the court. The European court’s pseudo-legal rulings have resulted in the writing of cheques on the British taxpayers’ account.

“We all know of the £8million a day for housing illegal ‘small boats’ migrants, something which is set to cost £6billion over the next two years. This is the tip of the fiscal iceberg created in large part by Strasbourg and borne by taxpayers.”